Pokemon is the only reason I bought mine. I bought my regular 3DS XL back in in April when it was on sale for $160 since to me a 3DS is not worth $200 (my Pokemon Edition was worth the upgrade though). Since April I've bought a lot of games people considered the reason to own a 3DS (Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Kart 7, SMT IV, Ect) while I wait for Pokemon and I can easily say without Pokemon I'd never own a 3DS.

Fire Emblem and Tales of the Abyss are the only games that grabbed my attention and even then I hardly play them. Why? Because the 3DS hardware is god awful. It literally makes me not want to play games on it. The Vita's hardware is so good that it makes me want to play every game on it. Thats why I actually WANT ports on it, I'd rather play those games on my Vita than my PS3, 3DS, PSP, 360, or Wii.

The 3DS may have more software but it does me no good if the hardware makes me not want to play them.

I didn't just play the games I bought, I also downloaded some demos and played games from a friend. But even Resident Evil didn't blow me away by any means. But in the end, I'm not a techie that analyzes every detail. Either I like the graphics, or I don't. But the main problem I have with the 3DS is that I could count every single pixel, even when I'm a good chunk away from it. Maybe I shouldn't have bought an XL, but people told me that was the best option. But in the end, graphics aren't a deal breaker for me. The thing is, I have more fun with the Vita, period.  

And no, I didn't play with 3D. I tried it in the beginning, but it just isn't good by any standards. The ghosting is really bad (especially with Donkes Kong 3D), I couldn't stand it. I prefer playing in 2D.

I thought we could all just get along, but here's the next one trying to convinve me that I'm wrong... I guess we do have to hate on each other after all... 

May I ask, have you ever owned a Vita?

Yes I have, system annoyed me completely. The PSP is a far better machine. I hate the joysticks on the vita.

3D improves the resolution, hence why I asked, since you're talking about graphics .

I purchased my PS Vita on launch day .
I recently purchase 3DS XL with The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong Country.

I can't belive that it is allowed to be sold in the UK without a power adaptor.
(which was out of stock and required a long walk an an extra £15)

The 3D experiance lasted 10 minutes and has not been used since, leaving me with a headache and low res low

quality LCD screen.

After a few hours of play my finger and thumbs ache, due to the poor ergonomic button layout.

I can't see any more games that I want to play on the 3DS, so it will become a dust collector or sold on Ebay.

Vita on the other hand with Hi res OLED and great ergonomics is well used (Killzone at the moment) and a great

future secured when the PS4 is released.

Pretty much nothing. Sure there are some game I would like to play on 3DS but I would NEVER have time to play on 2 handhelds.

I got the 3DS XL mostly for Nintendo Jump&Runs, Zelda, Layton and Ace Attorney.

My main reason for owning a Vita is PS Plus, as it means I get a healthy dose of games while rarely ever needing to buy any.

Nintendo could do a Nintendo Plus, but that alone wouldnt be enough for me to consider changing as they dont have enough games of interest (to me) to give away that would make me want to change.

Lol.  Took 6 replies for someone to actually answer the question in the OP -_-

Anyway, I kind of feel like I can't reply because you say "wealthy Vita owners", which I don't especially fulfill, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

I'm cautious about 3DS.  After I got my Vita, it became my main mode of gaming.  I loved being able to play everywhere; to shut down the console with the press of a button and then being able to resume later at exactly the same point I was at.  And I loved that - to me - it's console quality on the go.  Minus R2 & L2, the controls are there and the games are of very high quality.

This led me to believe that I'm just a fan of handheld gaming in general (I haven't owned a handheld console since the Gameboy Colour - I've always preferred home consoles).  So I bought myself a PSP.

Holy shit, I really don't like it.  It's just a rubbish piece of hardware.  UMD's are noisy and annoying.  The analogue nub is absolutely terrible.  The screen isn't great.  The OS is slow as fuck.  etc.

So, now that's made me cautious about whether I'll actually like the 3DS as a machine.  I know that it doesn't have the UMD problem, but I suspect it may suffer from some of the other things that I don't like about my PSP.

However, I suspect that in the future I will end up buying a 3DS.  It's reaching the threshold of number of games that'd make it a worthwhile purchase regardless - but I must stress, only just.  Heading into 2014 I think it'll start getting better as things like Bravely Default hit that appeal to me a lot more.  It does, however, have the whole DS library too, which is a nice selling point.

I'm sure I'll be told by multiple 3DS owners that I simply must play Luigi's Mansion and Mario & Luigi and all the 3D remakes, but honestly, none of those series appealed to me when I owned their respective other consoles and that's not gonna change on the 3DS.  Things I am interested in include Fire Emblem; Sims Pets; Ridge Racer; Tekken; Kingdom Hearts & possibly Mario Kart.  Those are the games I'll be buying for eventually.

Other things that could speed up my 3DS purchase include:

• More JRPG's.  Bravely Default next year is a great start to compliment Kingdom Hearts.  More please.
• More racing games.  I discovered, after WipEout 2048 & Need for Speed: Most Wanted, that racing games are a very good fit on handhelds.  Having more than just Ridge Racer will help.
• Further price drop.  I'm possibly just being greedy here, but the thought of paying £10 less for a 3DS XL and no games than I paid a year ago for a Vita + 1 game + memory card puts me off a little, and makes me want to wait.
• Better "classics" library.  Are N64 games playable on 3DS yet?  That'd be a big plus for me.
• Account system.  I'd still be iffy about any digital content without it.

Actually we'd tell you to play Kid Icarus Uprising, Tales of the Abyss,Fire Emblem, every single game you can find from Atlus, Ghost Recon Shadow Wars, Resident Evil Revelations,Monster Hunter,Virtues Last Reward, Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, your choice of a fighting game (4 different ones) and a variety of other games. Along with DS's wide ass catalog from every game genre underneath the sun. And no there are no N64 games on the 3DS.
There are racing games from the systems first year there is like one or two good ones, but I dont play those on it.

And Kingdom Hearts if you're into that. The E-Shop itself is full of a bunch of stuff too. Genre wise.

I wouldnt get Mario Kart 7 personally. Japan has a lot more 3DS games actually.

@ underlined, good shout!  I forgot about Tales.  That would be added to my list of definite buys.

As for the rest of them - I don't buy Atlus games on Vita, and I don't have much interest in them on 3DS either.  Didn't buy Resident Evil Revelations on consoles, so not interested on 3DS.  I hate Monster Hunter (and before you ask: I hate God Eater too).  Virtue's Last Reward is on Vita and I don't own it.  Never played an Ace Attorney game before.  Owned Professor Layton & the Curious Village for DS, didn't enjoy it too much.  Listed Tekken as my choice of fighting game.

I may have to check out Kid Icarus if I can find it for sub £15.

Thanks for the suggestions in any case.