I would not enjoy the system nearly as much without the gamepad. I noticed a few saying the opposite, that's fine but I gotta say, you are missing out on the opportunities of the gamepad.
First there is off screen play. Fricken amazing. In the middle of a game and someone wants to watch TV, no problem, switch it to the gamepad and continue gaming. Plus it has decent range for many houses as long as there isn't too much interference. I can get it about 35-40 feet away from the console, to the opposite side of the apartment and it works great. Recent updates seem to have increased the effective range and this is also with lots of interference since it is an apartment building.
There are also some neat uses, admittedly not enough for my liking, in games with the gamepad. Some of the best being in Nintendo Land. It has some great games with 5 people. Simple and very enjoyable.
The multiplayer aspect of it is great. Games that utilize it like Hyrule Warriors and some of the Lego games, among others give two screens, one for each player instead of having split screen. Great for in house gaming.
To me, the strengths certainly outweigh the weaknesses of it.

I'm guessing you have played HW only single player eh? HW uses the gamepad perfectly with two people. Screen for each player. 

I hear from alot of people that they'd rather buy it with the pro controller instead for a lower cost so I think Nintendo shouldve made two bundles, one being with and without the gamepad.  Being that the gamepad is an optional accessory.  I think those two bundles would be better than the white 8gb and black 32gb.  The storage on the Wii U are so little I dont think it matters whether people pick up the 8gb or 32gb, just buy a large SD card.

And about the $200 sweet spot, was I the only one that bought the white 8gb Wii U for $199? Last year there was the white 8gb Wii U skylander bundle for $199 but there was so many in stock.  Either Nintendo didn't do a good job promoting the  $199 deals or it just goes to show that even the sweet spot can't push Wii U sales as much as we'd hope.

Wouldn't make a huge difference for me. I haven't found a game that really enhanced the game play of any Wii U title too much, but I don't have Zombi U either (wasn't crazy about the demo though).

As for off-screen TV play I find it mostly pointless too. We waited 6 years for Nintendo to go HD, now that they have, playing the games on a low-res, crappy 6-inch display when you have a HDTV to play in the same room just seems like a pointless endeavor.

The only thing I like about the Wii U tablet screen is the lower resolution/crappier quality actually looks good for SNES games ... they look how I remembered them (ie: Donkey Kong Country), whereas on the bigger HDTV they can look really dated.

There are some games that make good use of it; ZombiU, Rayman Legends, Nintendoland, Hyrule Warriors, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Deus Ex, Need for Speed Most Wanted U...

I think you just described my perfect controller.

Nope, I still haven't played a full game of Smash on the TV...

See thats the thing. Outside of the name, there is little in common between Wii and Wii U. When they announced Wii U I was expecting this controller. A evolution from Wii. Like how the NES and SNES had a similar name, but everything was evolved. I was expecting this from Wii U. Instead we get the gamepad.

While I am pleasantly surprised by it and I have no issues with it, I just think that Nintendo missed out on evolving the motion controls they popularized with Wii. Plus the money saved from the gamepad could have went towards improving the specs on the system itself. At least enough to keep Wii U in the range of the twins when it comes to 3rd party ports.

And? Apart from these handful games no games use it. Even mariokart 8 ignores it (if you forget the horn). If top tier games dont use it then it looses its purpose. Plus we need some "meaningful usage" like wii mote, not just afterthought usage which can easily be done from wii u pro controller.

Edit: The thing is you need games that are build around the gamepad. We havent seen that. Thats why people have raised voice.

See, there's a difference between "no games" and "a handful". I don't disagree that it is under-utilized, but it's an exaggeration to say there aren't any games that utilize it.