Quoted from TheLaw:Comparing SF2 on a console to playing in an arcade with stick & 6 buttons is like trying to compare a 90s got to a real pinball machine.
Quoted from mbaumle:I think it ported over to the consoles incredibly well (especially the SNES version), and to some degree, a console controller allows for greater precision over an arcade stick--but that's just me. I've personally never cared for the unwieldy arcade joysticks.
While the great majority of high-level SFII players (and fighting game players in general) use sticks, there are top players (like the 2014 world SFII champ) who use control pads. So you can't definitely say that one input system provides better control than the other. Probably depends a lot on whether you got your start with these games at an arcade or on a console.