I've never once been bothered by screen tearing. Back when I was a kid, things like slowdown, flicker, and game freezing were the things that pissed me off. Later on, things like fog and pop-up. I WISH all I had to worry about was a split second screen tear.
You're spoiled.
Also, my Wii leaves artifacts on the screen (little green dots), sucks online, and sometimes goes completely black (for several seconds--it's killed me more than once) when I play a game. The Wii isn't the video game Messiah, either.......