sthompson

Yes, that's really annoying but it seems to be a problem with Windows as much as with DCS.
I recommend the following to recover, assuming you still have a backup of your config\input folders from before you started having trouble.
Backup your original input folders Make a copy of the backup. You will do some editing here in later steps. Delete the current input folders, then start up DCS and make some controller assignments for one module. You don't need to make a complete set. A few assignments for each device will do. Then exit DCS. You will now have new lua files in your config\input\<module name>\joystick folder. Look at the names of those files, and make a note of the new device numbers here. Edit the names of the lua files saved in step 2 so that the old devices have the new device identifiers. If you have a lot of modules this can be somewhat time consuming. But you can use cmd scripting to speed this up so that you don't have to rename each file manually. (A combination of the "for" and "rename" commands of the cmd command shell does the trick.) Edit any modifiers.lua files in the archive from step 2 to revise the device numbers for any modifiers that use those devices. If (like me) you use the same modifiers in all modules then you can do this once and then copy the modifiers.lua file to all of the other directories where a change might be needed. Copy the edited archive back to the original location in Saved Games. My understanding is that Windows assigns device IDs when it detects a "new" device. Unfortunately that might include an old device plugged into a new USB port, or some other hardware change. So to avoid these changes, try not to move your connected devices around.

Neither. It's a consequence of flying high with an unrealistic FOV setting. Set your FOV to something realistic, which for most people using 2D monitors will be zoomed in pretty far. (This is realistic in terms of angular views, but will feel like tunnel vision because you can't have both good peripheral vision and realistic FOV angles at the same time with a 2D monitor.) Then fly low and fast and look at your 3-9 line. You will see the speed. Also at 12 o'clock if you are low enough.