Nay lad. The D-pad is a load of tripe. I urge anyone on a 360 pad to try out an Xbone controller. It's better in every way, especially the second revision models that you get today with the improved bumper buttons.
Can't remember the last time I required the dpad.
360 controller all the way for me, far better mushrooms than the smaller plastic twiddly things on the Xbone controller.