I used to play Neverwinter on PC with an Xbox controller, Xpadder is amazing software for allowing things like that to happen and ridiculously easy to setup. I know its no substitute for actual support, but worked great for me.
This was my initial thought, no idea why they never put it their, and like someone said previously, a toggle option for those who don't want it is fine also. For me this game is almost unplayable without a mini map, maybe I've been spoilt in the past, but I really just wanna see my surroundings without opening the main map.