Reply to making a midi controller.....

so i dont quite understand this, i have been reading for about a solid week and cant grasp this concept.

you can use a usb game controller as a cheap midi controller. its a HID unit then you run it through a program that converts HID to MIDI and map all the buttons.

now a usb game controller only has 14 buttons.

so why are the usb game controllers so popular or easy to use? why wouldnt someone use a usb computer keyboard and just solder a crap load of arcade buttons and map it with the HID to MIDI software (obviously only buttons no faders or knobs)? a usb keyboard is a HID right?

or will this cause a problem like if i have a laptop and i plug in a usb keyboard will it conflict with my laptop keyboard?

if there is any good literature online thats a good read post it.