⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DELL0A78:00 27C6:0D42 Touchpad id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse id=15 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DELL0A78:00 27C6:0D42 Mouse id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ 04F31234:00 04F3:2C6B id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
And there it is; My touchpad shows up but doesn't appear to be functioning and instead is being caught as a PS/2 Generic mouse. I've tried using numerous different packages to enable gesture support and to interpret my touchpad as more than just a mouse to no avail, packages such as libinput, libinput-gestures, and synaptics, but I've found that my attempts at following the Arch wiki setup guide for each of these packages still has not enabled me to get this functionality working. The Synaptics/Gestures entry under the wiki states that it's been deprecated but that there may still be reasons to use it, one being for laptop gestures. More reading has suggested that because my laptop supports Microsoft's i2c-hid protocol that this is the culprit of the numerous problems that I've had setting up gestures to work with my laptop.
Because most of the information that I'm finding is outdated I thought this question deserved to be asked again as an updated guide: What is the current standard/working protocol for setting up new touchpads for use with gestures? Is synaptics still recommended for laptop gesture control or is libinput the best and current solution now that synaptics has been deprecated? How do i2c-hid protocols affect the setup of new touchpads? I would appreciate any information anyone has on this topic through either your own experience or what you can find because I feel that I've exhausted my ability to solve this issue, and I hope that the collective sum of our knowledge here will serve as a waypoint for others so no one else has to spend months searching for answers to set this up anymore. Thank you all in advance.