I disassembled a Joycon stick to shed some light on why drifting occurs

There it is! See those marks on the pads? because they are a softer material than that the metal prongs that rub against them, the pads have wear marks after heavy use. These wear marks probably cause fluctuations in the resistance of the pad, screwing up the X and Y readings. This Is why contact cleaner is only a temporary fix. Contacts do get dirty and affect readings (especially with the microscopic debris rubbing off of these pads as they wear away) but there is no way I can think of to reverse this wear. I'm not an electrical engineer, so I'll admit I could be wrong on this. If you ARE an electrical engineer, please hop back over to my reddit post and lets discuss these findings, I'm curious to know if this is the real cause of the issue. Take the drift survey here!!! (not mine) https://makdiz.typeform.com/to/gJPdcm