MSFS 2020 and accessory keypads like a nostromo n52 - Help understanding installation

I've got about 6 hours flying time in so far on the new version and thus four to 5 times that learning the new interface. And so far only two CTDs both during initial loading. The actual installation took about two hours and I was barely able to fly within an hour of starting the game and immediately impressed with the visuals. But what is driving me crazy is learning all the new methods of configuring including what's missing, what works, and what doesn't. And one of the things that doesn't work is my n52 speedpad2 which I added to the configuration to give me more buttons to go along with my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. The Options-Controls menu worked very well configuring my joystick but doesn't seen to work with the speedpad. It's listed as the fourth item along the top of the Controls, after keyboard, mouse, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick, and then the Nostromo n52 Speedpad, but every attempt I've made to configure it fails in that I cannot specify anything different than the default key assignments for it. The configure options in MSFS only list a button number from 1 to 20, no option for the scroll wheel or d-pad and no matter how I assign the buttons they either have no effect or exhibit behavior associated to the default out-of-the-box values from the factory. And this happens even after I use the separate speedpad configuration utility to pre-assign the key sequences for each button to those MSFS should use for the functions I want. But in the game they never exhibit the desired behavior except that coming from the default key assignments - as though there is no real option to configure the speedpad - yet. So I'm thinking this is a "feature" meaning they haven't got around to actually implementing this yet and although they allow you to go through the act of configuring it's really a non-operation.

Does this sound about right? Has anyone been able to configure a separate keypad in addition to a joystick?

And meanwhile, I pay the price for not preparing better. I thought I'd just upgrade my equipment - but all of you people who did prepare bought up the worldwide inventory of the better yoke and throttle kits and none are available until late September, or October, or November. Oh well!