Elite Dangerous

It's a huge sandbox with story lines; some thin, some like the recent Thargoid war that went on for two years and culminated with an attack on Earth.

PvP is very lopsided until you have skill and in-game engineering. VERY lopsided. Then, only meta ships are useful. It's ok though, learning how to evade a gank is part of the game in Open. Lots of content in Solo, and then there are private groups. If you want to play in a PvE galaxy you can look up Mobius. Progression is across all modes, so you can just jump back and forth. I play in Open but will still switch to Solo going to a dangerous area.

Many top level pilots use M+KB, I like "airplanes in space" so I use HOSAS. I have VKB Gladiators with the bent left stick and I wish I had just bought them at the beginning. I fly in super cruise with just the right stick. I have VR and use it sometimes but spend 90% of the time using OpenTrack and a webcam for rudimentary head tracking. Track IR is popular.

There is a lot of story/lore but no campaign, no given storyline. There's so much given for your imagination https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Elite_Dangerous_Timeline tho we mostly only get some galnet articles for everything new.

Can't say much about multiplayer, I only use solo mode. But you can still see the chat of open play, if you're in a system. No one will know if you're solo or open. FDevs also announced to rework the whole squadron thingy

I use a controller with 2 sticks. I love it, don't even think about getting a joystick because I don't play on a desk

Campaign.

Like others have said, there isn't one. There's a storyline delivered via galnet and community goals, but you're free to drop in and out of it as you please. There are various factions you can join and support via powerplay, which will give you weekly goals and a rank-up / reward system. You can also rank up with the federation or empire for access to ships, or pick a minor faction to support informally by doing missions and trade.

Multiplayer.

Again, you're free to drop in and out. Space is big, though. And with instancing, even in open you may not encounter other CMDRs outside of heavily trafficked systems (stay out of Deciat unless you want to get murdered). There is a dedicated PvP system that's kept in Anarchy state so kills won't get you in trouble. There are plenty of squadrons you can join, check inara (also an invaluable resource generally) to search them. Most people form a private group to do missions or whatever. On the radar, filled dots are NPCs, empty ones are PCs.

Flight Stick.

You're not missing out. The game is perfectly playable and a lot of fun with mouse and keyboard, stick and keys, HOTAS, HOSAS, controller, whatever. Most of the high ranking PvP players use mouse / keys. I'd suggest finding your feet a bit first before dropping any serious amount of money. But if you do end up going down that route, get something decent. Purely personal opinion but I wouldn't bother with the X3D, although some other people like it just fine. The absolute rock bottom cheapest I'd suggest is an X52, and even then I hesitate to actually recommend it. I have one and don't regret it, but I wish I'd had the patience to save for something better.

And some general advice: Don't forget your limpets, bring a fuel scoop, and don't sell your Cobra. Always take the materials reward (not trade commodities) from missions. Money is tempting in the early game, but you'll get creds as a side effect of playing anyway. Mats will set you up better for the mid - late game when they become a lot more important.

admittedly, haven't played in quite some time, but last I checked:

• campaign? story? There is none, apart from the galnet news and events. The game is a sandbox, you do you. Mine, bountyhunt, pirate... whatever.
• can't comment on multiplayer, only played in closed sessions with friends only.
• up to you with the controls. I've mostly played with mouse+keyboard and found them to work just fine. Sure a HOTAS is a lot cooler, but I wouldn't bother unless you end up REALLY being into flightsims/elite.

Oh yeah, I responded to you three days ago but I was in a hurry and forgot something:

VR + HOSAS + Elite Dangerous isn't some game I play, it's somewhere I go. I mean, I'm really there, in the cockpit doing the pewpew.