Opposite for me: I play smash with the gamepad. Gladly too, GC controllers feel small to me now.

Battery life and distance between the shoulder and trigger buttons are my main issues, but it's fine otherwise. Off TV play has actually been quite relevant for me. Sure they didn't deliver on it being a huge gamechanger, but I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't need no innovations or gimmicks, just let me play your games without crap like that getting in the way!

Same! Not gonna waste money on GC adapters when I already have a perfectly good controller!

agreed.
in a tradicitional console, it remembered when i was a noob and i didnt yet knew the exact locations of the buttons, so i had to look to the controller everytime.
With a wii U controller and i had to look to the screen, i feel lika a noob frequently.

I just think its a poorly thought out controller. I hate the bulky design and the button layout is awkward. And I feel like using a pressure pad kind of touch screen was the wrong direction to go with the gamepad. Only thing redeemable about that monstrosity is the XL/XR buttons. I fucking love them

It's too expensive, the battery on it drains when it's not even being used so you come back to your WiiU after a couple of weeks and the gamepads flat as a pancake, and it's main selling point the ability to have a different view or display on the gamepad leaves less power for the actual game.

Size, and usefulness. Except for Splatoon. No other game I want to use with the thing. I'm faster with just using the pro controller. And it lost my full respect. When most of the system menus "need" it. I just leave it disabled.

My main problem with it is its limited range. I still have to move the console around if I want to use it more than 6ft away from it, or on the other side of a wall. How can you have video calls on your mobile phone yet the game pad is stumped by a closed window.

It's a special blutooth, not wifi.

The main problem with the Gamepad is that it's a product that no one asked for and very few wanted and it tried to capitalize on the tablet/mobile craze and cater to more experienced gamers at the same time, and it did not succeed in appealing to either for the most part. To top it all off, like the Wii-mote in its day, the controller itself was heavily under-utilized even by Nintendo themselves. That's the Gamepad's main problem.
People blamed the Wii U's failure on marketing, lacking software and other factors, but the Gamepad was always the main component that alienated the market, I believe I said I suspected that would be the case a few months before the Wii U even launched.

Can you please explain what you mean by 'digital triggers?'