This is restorable and it is one of the most satisfying cheap repairs there is, so no, you do not have to accept it.
What gives a face button its click is the rubber membrane dome underneath, not the plastic button cap. A fresh dome buckles sharply when you press it, which is the crisp snap you remember, and springs back fast. Over a few hundred thousand presses the rubber loses elasticity: it buckles more gradually, springs back slower, and the whole action feels soft. All four going together is the signature of this, because they are one moulded sheet of the same material that has aged at the same rate. If one button were mushy and three were crisp you would suspect contamination under that one, but four together is simply the sheet reaching the end of its useful life at four years of heavy use.
The fact that they all still register confirms the conductive side is fine. That is useful, because it means you are buying feel rather than fixing a fault, and you can decide purely on whether the feel bothers you.
A replacement membrane sheet for a DualSense is a few pounds or dollars for the whole set, it drops straight in with no soldering, and the difference is immediate and dramatic. People consistently describe it as feeling like a new controller, because in the way they interact with it most, it is. While you are in there, do the D-pad membrane too, since it is the same age and usually sold together.
Two things to avoid, both of which circulate as advice. Do not pack or shim behind the buttons to make them feel firmer, because it holds the domes partly compressed at rest and ages them faster. And do not try to revive the rubber with heat or with any oil or conditioner; it does not restore elasticity and silicone oil in particular migrates onto the contacts and causes intermittent registration, turning a feel problem into an actual fault.
