From a pure conceptual perspective, which is the better "Gimmick controller", Wii U Gamepad, or Joy-Con?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Both are decent concepts, but the joy-cons are executed far, far better.  

The joy-cons fit perfectly with the concept of what the Switch is.  They allow you to play in handheld mode or make your own type of Pro controller or the more free-hand dual joy-con approach.  Also for a lot of multiplayer games they count as 2 controllers.  And of course they have motion controls for Wii style games.  The only thing I don't like about the joy-cons is the HD rumble, which I feel is an unnecessary feature that drives up the price.  Other than that the joy-cons are an awesome concept with a great execution.

The Wii U gamepad to me is a bunch of wasted potential.  But to me the wasted potential is in the Virtual Console/eshop.  First of all they could have put a ton of popular mobile games on the eShop.  I mean if I have this touchpad, then why not give me touchpad games?  They missed the whole mobile market which could have been there.  On top of that they could have put a ton of DS and 3DS games on the Virtual Console.  You can use the TV to be the "top" screen and the gamepad to be the "bottom" screen.  I would have liked to play a lot of those DS/3DS games on the big screen.  At first it seems like DS and 3DS games would have to be handheld only, but it wouldn't have been hard to make it happen on the Wii U.

So, basically I can't fault the hardware designers at all in either case.  But whoever was thinking about the Wii U didn't really make it nearly as consumer friendly as it could have been.