I use game-pad very ocasionally actually, i've been playing PC my whole life even though i had a Playstations and an Xbox, but i'm usually really umcofortable using game-pad, i just use it when i play some platform games, or those who are designed to play with controller instead of keyboard and/or mouse.
For example i have more than 500 hours in The binding of Isaac a game that a lot of people master with game-pad, so you're maybe right, i'll have to think out of the box and practice with controller more often.
At the very beginning, I also felt uncomfortable, but after playing for some hours, I started to find my grip. The crazy thing is that I have started to play my favorite games once again just to experience them with Game-Pad.