Hi, I can definitely feel your frustration.
Unfortunately, I have no experience with ‘moonlight’ (and not heard about it until now). I see that the HowTo in this [1] seems to be slightly different to the HowTo on this thread.
I have not blacklisted xpad but then these lines in the start.sh:
modprobe xpad sleep 1 rmmod xpad modprobe uinput modprobe joydev /usr/bin/xboxdrv....
maybe the extra wait and the modprobe xpad could also help you? I know that there is a guide how to use the XBox controller for OSMC and Retropie. Have a look there if it helps you.
I hope that helps at least a bit…
[[HowTo] Moonlight-Embedded (former Limelight) using Luna Launcher - #2 by Toast]