I think the categories changed. Im not really 100% sure because i only say this from remembering but i have the feeling that there are other/more categories now in the control-select. I mean things like "HOTAS, Steering, etc" I dont remember seeing the one called "Extra for Joystick", for example. But i have the names in German, so can be its wrongly translated.
I dont know how this works in DCS, still new here but i can imagine if the xml files changed to another format/layout/structure its simply not possible to use the old ones anymore without errors.
And when i think about the applications i had to do with in my work so far its a normal thing that this changes over the time in a application, especially in EA state.
But im also lucky that im using the hotas preset from the user-files here for the TM16000M. I can just look at the pic to set up all like it was before in a min or 2.