I think its less to do with being judged and more to do with practicality.
Who can even fit the thing in their pocket?
I think its too much of an ask for people to keep putting it in and taking it out of their bags. And if it has to go in someones backpack, then they are most likely to put it in a case before they throw it in, so thats 2 bags that have to be opened.

If I could keep my vita in one pocket and my smartphone in the other, I would use my vita for many more things.

It doesn't need to look kiddie. Children aren't demanding that iPads have animals stuck on them, they don't care about that. The Vita simply needs games aimed at children if it wants to do well in North America. They need hot properties and titles that children are interested in. Unfortunately, western developers aren't going to develop for handheld consoles so it's up to Sony and they haven't taken that step.

That disappointing thing is that I believe Sony is actually well positioned to work on cross-media projects because of their presence in the film industry. Television or movie tie-ins could be big if they had a well-designed game to go along with them.

They simply dropped the ball with Vita support relative to what it needed to succeed in North America.

The first GTA came out 6 months after the platform in the US. That isn't enough dev time for them to have waited to see the install base.  Oh the playstation name was so glorious then.  

If you think it's embarrassing for adults to have handhelds, surely it's embarrasing for adults to have home consoles and play videogames full stop?

The reason why vita sold poorly it because a lot of psp series are not on vita.
Where is original mgs,original gta,tekken,socom,pes,original monster hunter ,original final fantasy etc

I'd feel embarrassed doing it. Well, I also have some anxiety issues.

Playing on home consoles, mobile phones or tablets is socially accepted.

needs to be smaller? naw that's not it. I knioow, it needs to be ninty

Yeah, I grew up in the 80s/90s, gaming on home consoles wasn't socially accepted >_< GEEK NERD! etc. So I guess that fact I happily did it then translates to me not caring on the train etc now.

I have a 1 and a half hour commute each way to work, soon to go up to 2 hours. I actually have more time to game on the move than I do when I get home on an evening. So the Vita has been perfect for me. Gives me the home console experience and really cuts down how long the daily grind feels.

As for mobile phone/tablet gaming... I don't care how socially acceptable it is (it's actually exactly the same IMO) they are just attrocious as gaming platforms for anything beyond Bejewelled and Candy Crush and the odd point and click adventure.

Seen a lot of people playing Football Manager Mobile on the train on iPads/Android tablets. Will be interesting to see if a real version of the game (Football Manager Classic 2014)  which actual has the proper game, not a cut down version, will attract anyone in Europe.

Of the two people in your scenario, I'd be far more judgemental of the person who looked down on someone else for playing a game on a handheld.  An actual adult isn't really worried about proving to the rest of the world that they are an adult.  It's like how a teenager is worried about being seen shopping with their mother but a grown-up has no such insecurities.

I want to live in Japan :<