I’m pretty happy with my modded soft pad turned out! I bought some generic USB Soft Pads from amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FTCZXZV) and I followed the guide from here http://www.angelfire.com/pro2/softpadmod/ and https://youtu.be/Soem9tnzeG0

The pad was performing well by following the guide above. I made some additonal modifications to the guide above including; I undid the stitching from the sides and individually taped down each layer of the pad so it was taut. With the bottom sensors, I put tape on all the connections going to the sensors (inside of the pad) to keep it from "ghost stepping" in the future. I still thought it could be better so then I cut a piece of plexiglass (https://m.lowes.com/pd/OPTIX-0-118-in-x-36-in-x-72-in-Clear-Acrylic-Sheet/3140717 *just enough for 2 pads) to fit over the top to give it more of an arcade feel (still has the vinyl covering under it). I was initially worried about the plexiglass pressing all the buttons down at once but it doesn’t! It actually performs pretty well. Acrylic Plexiglass has a tendency to crack vs polycarbonate, so I plan to only play on socks to minimize that risk.

Total cost of materials including soft pads is around $240 which is kinda a lot. But I'm happy with my investment.

I can post some more detailed photos of the process if people are interested though.