I tend to over research everything & wanted to know what all the pro pilots are using & it seems to be pretty evenly mixed between thumbs & pinching. I think there was even a poll thread here on RCU about it.

I pretty much fly 3D with the sticks going crazy & for me I found that I could be a little more precise around center by pinching the sticks but it was more difficult to quickly go from one full extreme of the sticks to the other and it always felt awkward to me. Probably from my years of wasted time playing video games using thumbs just seemed more natural. I am from the nintendo generation you know.

Whenever I see a very good pilot I still tend to look to see if they're using thumbs only & I have seen extremely good & precise pilots fly both, so it's probably more of a comfort thing & with enough practice you can get just as good either way.

good luck