Either Nintendo will do it or the homebrew community will. One method would reduce piracy, the other will open it up. I think it would be in Nintendo's (and any company's interest) to compete with the homebrew community.

Not to mention that a portable region-locked is one of the dumbest thing I could ever imagine, at least in gaming.

Now Nintendo is being put in a bad light now, because there's no free region lock on the system. Think its time to create a new console Nintendo, I personally see better value even on the Xbox One then the Wii U.

Though I still love my 3DS, still one of my favorite console of the 8th gen.

However, region-locking serves a purpose (otherwise why do it?).  

Region-locking's purpose is to allow producers and vendors to stick to old strategies that refuse to acknowledge we have already entered for many years a global market, where national boundaries count no more (except than having to pay import duties). It serves just the purposes of vendors and totally screws the buyers not offering them any benefit at all. And this is particularly true in a portable, that should allow its owners to play a game wherever they bought it, but it also screws home console users, preventing them from importing games that aren't available in their countries.

Nope.  Here's a copypasta list of reasons.

Pricing. It is difficult to maintain a single pricing structure that can be applied worldwide due to currency conversion, taxes, international trade laws (e.g., European Union free movement of goods). Considerations such as local/national discretionary income, the prevalence and ease of obtaining pirated media, competing products/services and loss-leading promotion (to establish a foothold in a territory) can also affect pricing. Region-locking a console means that there is no need for pricing parity across the world; different territories can have different prices for games without people simply shopping "wherever is cheaper".

Sensitive regions. Some games could be regarded as offensive for religious or political reasons, and regional lockout may be required to prevent these games from being distributed in sensitive countries.

Staggered launches. If a console is region-locked, then staggered launches of the games would be easier, as console producers could easily control the huge bow-wave of people wanting a game the moment it is released.

We just need to get them to adopt region free gaming instead of their current game-free regioning. How hard can that be?

lol.

OT:

I could care less about this issue.  Right off the bat Nintendo was the only option clearly with no DRM, no "always on" check-ups, no anti-used or -rented games policies, and FREE online matchmaking.

If you wanted to get me on board with a movement to get PS4 and XBOne to drop online fees, I could support that.  But Nintendo has made all the right choices without prodding, I would leave them be.

a bit late now isn't it? Is this something that can really be patched to get rid of?

I've been asking that same question earlier... :/