Ever wondered what amount of punishment X360 pad can take? Well, unintended test happened - the pad fell from the table and got under my chair leg. 120 kilos (me) plus 45 kilos (my chair) and i was playing USFIV for about 2 hours, so i wasn't exactly sitting still. Then i heard clicking sound and saw pad literally flying to the other side of my room. And that's what happened: Yeah, just a scratch and nothing more. I doubt that DualShock 2/3 and especially 4 can survive this. So even if d-pad sucks balls there's one good thing about X360 pad - it's built like a tank.
You didn't apply a full 120+45 kilos to the controller. If so you would have had to be balancing the chair on the controller. It appears the chair was resting on the bottom right handle of the controller, looks indented more than just a scratch... I'd imagine most controllers would handle this force/impact quite well before breaking.
It looks as if the pad is on fire to me or maybe that's because I'm looking at the image on my phone?