a good chunk of those multiplat games ran like crap on Wii anyway (COD) and some of them werent even the same game (Force Unleashed)

Obviously what they did do was not viable with any significant audience.
Whether Wii U might have been more successful by dumping tablet and selling at lower price is open question.
Or using the same budget to allow stronger CPU/GPU/memory at the same cost to consumer.

I think it does have bearing on Switch in revealing consequences of cheaping out on performance strategy.
That did not mean they could later drop their costs of production so much to maximize competitiveness in S/M market.
Too large a percentage of production cost was tied up in components less amenable to production gains.
Switch also commits to obsolete 2D 20nm process when future fab improvements (10nm, 7nm) will be 3D FinFET.
Rather than getting on board same fab node bandwagon everybody else is, even if aiming for smaller APU at lower clock,
Nintendo uses last-gen fab node which makes their design less amenable to future cost reductions from fab improvements.
It is aiming far behind the curve, and thus will always miss the largest % of cost improvements which the mainstream gains.

It probably would've sold more, but it wouldn't have magically sold like 100 million or even 40-50 million again. 

The Wiimote was bundled with the Wii U in Japan with Wii Party and Wii Fit (don't tell me this SKU was aimed at hardcore gamers) and it still sold like crap. 

Kinect was bundled with the XBox, that damaged the XBox rather than helping it. By around 2011 I think people kinda just got tired of waggling their arms around ... it gets boring and "same ol', same ol'" after the 50000th time and every system had it with the same exact types of games.

Honestly, I feel like underclocking the Switch to the degree that Nintendo did was a mistake, if only for the negative PR that will result.

Gamers today do care about specs, and headlines all across the internet declaring that Switch is weaker than Tegra X1 even when docked and only 30% as strong undocked will significantly hurt the system's image.

I know "preorder cancelled" has become a widespread joke, but there are plenty of people for whom this news will mean they don't buy one.

Agreed. I understand that it being Xbox One levels of performance was always a pipe dream. But at least be a bit closer.....damn....use that Tegra chip properly. 

It's fine, but I do wish Nintendo would just actively come out and say "we're not aiming for hardware power" and be most honest/upfront. 

Every fucking generation for the last three gen's, Nintendo's led people on and their fanbase has build up expectations that they then fall woefully short of. 

Just be honest and upfront with your audience about what you're doing. IMO they purposely keep everything secretive to allow the hardware to build up in the minds of its fanbase, which then inevitably leads to dissapointment. 

Good job guys keeping this potentially nuclear thread in check. Some very good discussions going on here. I think we have had only one ban casualty, and she only has herself to blame with those comments. Wow.

And even Digital Foundry couldn't say for sure if the docked mode would outperform Wii U.