How do you play fighting games with a PS4 controller?

I'm struggling with Injustice2 but this applies to fighting games in general. I spent a good 7 years (3000 hours) with IV generation of Street Fighter, about a 100 hours with V and MK9, MKX each, but I did so on PC. Where I could use more than one finger for movement (WASD) and I find the transition to analog stick or D-Pad extremely difficult, borderline impossible.

If I use the stick, I'm doing all kinds of jumps from a down+forward motion just because I moved it 1 degree higher. A backward>forward motion isn't coming out unless I push it to the point it hits the end, and I really don't want to break my controller. Okay it won't break, but treated slightly more violent.

If I use the D-Pad I find it difficult to do an angled jump, because my thumb isn't as big to comfortibly press both, so I'm tring these "sliding" motions here to somehow how to press both at once or to do a quarter or back-forward command. Slightly better than the stick for me, but things are subject to change.

How you do it? I mean, I'm interested in your "hand technique", the way you hold it, the way you move / press etc. Please don't post "buy a fighting stick".