Controller Choice

TL;DR Buying Tekken 7 soon and intend to get good enough to perform sample combos and other technical gimmicks, so should I buy a fightstick or just use the PS4 D-Pad/analog stick?

I haven't been a fan of Tekken for too long (started with 3D Prime and played Tag 2 on the PS3), but I've recently been really fascinated by the competitive scene in fighting games. Smash, NetherRealm games, Tekken, the works. I'm planning on buying Tekken 7 soon and I have a couple questions for the pros out there.

Should I buy a fightstick?

I've used standard controllers as long as I can remember and there were always some inputs I could never successfully pull off. That might have just been me sucking at Tekken. A fightstick will cost more money and I don't know if I'll actually get used to it, or have the motivation to do so.

And if I don't use a fightstick, should I use the D-Pad (PS4 player here) or the analog stick?

Inputs like Electric Wind God Fist and Rolling Death Cradle seem pretty difficult to pull off, but I haven't tried Tekken in a while so I can't tell. I understand that mastering the technical aspects of Tekken will take quite some practice, that's common knowledge, but what good is tech if you can't input essential parts to a character?

Anyway, thanks for reading or responding if anyone does! I really appreciate it! :)