Thanks for the feedback, guys- at least it sounds like this is to be expected with this stick. Since we're all waiting for a fix for the wheel brakes, I may as well sit tight and see if this is something they address in any future updates. What would be most excellent is a calibrate feature where you set your desired "off" point, "100%" point, and "max" point for your particular device. This could help get rid of the slop at the beginning of the throttle as well. Low hanging fruit, I suppose.
Depending on what comes down the line, I may poke around and see what the Ace-Edge guts look like. I'm fairly experienced with electronics, enough so to usually know when I'm getting over my head.
In fact, depending on how the communication between the throttle and flight stick is handled, this could possibly be done with a simple in-between box with a male and female D-sub connector (or the like). Hopefully the D-sub is just passing analog rather than digital signals.