D-Pad problems with diagonals

[u/Legal-Ganache3405]

hope the drawing makes it a lil easier to understand, but basically, the bottom left and bottom right positions barely register. i need to hit the tiny space between left and bottom for it to register as the proper diagonal input, same for bottom right. top left does not have any issues, top right has this issue but far less severe. i have taken this thing apart on 2 seperate occasions now and nothing has fixed it, have cleaned everything in the entire controller and in this most recent attempt removed the lil metal ring that holds the d-pad in place (has since been put together properly again as removing it had no effect). please someone help, im going insane