[mashlol]

This isn't always true.

Fortnite's emote wheel is a good counter-example - it wouldn't be easy to implement in any other way. You don't want to dedicate 8 separate buttons just for emotes, and any form of a linear list of options would be hard for players to learn via muscle memory.

An emote wheel with 8 options makes it easy to remember - press some key to emote, then drag down to play emote X, or up for emote Y. As an added bonus, it works well with directional control pads, but that's not the primary benefit.