You don't need to rest it on your leg. They weigh nothing and can be held in the air with your left hand alone comfortably. He said the main requirement was the six face buttons.
Even the analog Saturn pad had 6 face buttons, analog triggers. All it was missing was a second analog stick. That pad was actually pretty comfortable.
What's actually impractical is buying twelve gamepads for different games when one can do a good job at all of them.