Dude - that is a _lot_ of research!
Nice one
I've not had any probs with a joypad in dosbox...
I think I changed the config so that the set sound bit had Jxxx or something.
If you need software, first thing I'd try is some old sound-card ones, for DOS. Drivers or something.
They usually had CD-ROM and Joystick ones inside.
What'd be really good, is if we hunted down links for all the things you mentioned.
Make the names of them hyperlinks and that's a most excellent joystick resource, nextinline!
A bit like russ' great Abandonia search plug-in - things like this don't get the light they deserve.
Hopefully, one day, far in the future, someone will be very grateful that you've scribed all this.
(unless it's a copy-paste, in which case I retract everything that I've said
)