Thank you for your feedback and assurance. I needed to discard that option so your feedback is so valuable. In the end, I have used the good ol' method: copy Pre made SD Image to SD card and set things up anew.
I have elaborated the table below to clarify the relationship between an SNES USB Gamepad , its Retroarch Port Binds and Default Actions as a result of Hotkey Binds. It's just a bit of an expansion of the Default joypad hotkeys section in the Wiki article on RetroArch configuration
+------------------+------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------------+
| SNES USB Gamepad | RetroArch Port 1 Binds | Default Action | Hotkey Binds |
+------------------+------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------------+
| Up | -1 | [AI SERVICE] *Free to use* | SELECT + Up |
| Down | +1 | [PAUSE] *Free to use* | SELECT + Down |
| Left | -0 | Savestate Slot - | SELECT + Left |
| Right | +0 | Savestate Slot + | SELECT + Right |
| SELECT | 8 | HOTKEY | |
| Start | 9 | Quit Retroarch | SELECT + Start |
| A | 1 | *Free to use* | |
| B | 2 | Reset | SELECT + B |
| X | 0 | Menu Toggle | SELECT + X |
| Y | 3 | *Free to use* | |
| Left Shoulder | 4 | Load State | SELECT + Left Shoulder |
| Right Shoulder | 5 | Save State | SELECT + Right Shoulder |
+------------------+------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------------+
Select button in SNES USB Gamepad is set as the HOTKEY button
Free to use means Retroarch does not set a default Action, so it can be used for any purpose.
[ACTION] = name of the manually-set action
Setting a specific Hotkey Bin to pause the gameplay [PAUSE] seems particularly useful when setting AI Service Pause Toggle to ON (RGUI > Settings > AI Service): Retroarch will pause gameplay, allowing time to read translated text, to continue only upon pressing the Pause Hotkey Bind. And of course, Hotkey Binds for actions can be redefined.
Cheers,
