I stopped listening to the Nintendo Voice Chat ever since they decided to go on their anti-Nintendo rant and diss their own reader base simply to get more hits, but luckily there is a summary to give me the info I need, and I won't have to waste an hour listening to their garbage.
Anyway, I hope this is true. Friend codes just hinder the experience more than anything else. Not saying they need to have a replica of Xbox live, but at least get rid of the friend codes, and switch them with usernames or something, friend codes are just a pain that no one needs.