Uhhh, I was extremely lucky. Chances were minimal, but I found Suzo's "The Arcade" joystick for 8/16-bit homecomputers on eBay Netherlands. Even better, this turned out to be a "Buy it now"-offer - there was no hesitation for me.
The Arcade was by far not as common as the Quickshot II or the Competition Pro, but there is no other design that fits as comfortably in the palm of my hand. All microswitches, of course. I just spent half an hour playing Soccer II on my C64 using another ancient joystick model, and I constantly hit a misplaced fire button, plus my hand started hurting within minutes.
I can't wait to plug in the Arcade again.