It sets the axis bindings and depending on the game it also makes sure to set the appropriate axis behaviors (headlook on/off, dead zone values, axis smoothing etc). Leaving these settings to the user would not allow us to control the user experience to the degree that we deemed was necessary for the initial launch of this application.
This is creating a mess when customers have installed Elite:Dangerous as a normal user. During ISE installation, you force us to run this as admin, so it expects to find the bind files under the admin account. Catch 22. I’m clueless atm how to sort this out. Please re-program your installation routine so that ISE installs under the current user.