Hey
@Shock I haven't ran this idea past you yet, because it doesn't really address the core problem of connecting controllers without restarting the game. But what if both P1 and P2 had like 4 independent input assignments in the config menu? So you can assign one controller at a time, and not needing to assign all controllers per player simultaneously?
I'm not sure how much that would help, but I think something like that is doable.