I spent some time with Wii U today, though I don't have one yet. It does some impressive things. So far it doesn't exactly scream "next gen," but in a lot of subtle ways it clearly is. The way I see it, saying Wii U doesn't "feel" next-gen is like saying you don't feel any older on your birthday. Of course you don't feel any older, you're only really a day older than you were yesterday. But your functional/legal age DID increase by one, whether you 'felt' it or not.
As for the actual tech, I don't really know or care whether people want to call it 7th gen or whatever. I'm pretty sure most or all of the Wii U's innards are post-2007 tech, which is to say, not the same stuff in the PS3 or 360. The Wii U can be using tech from 1999 for all I care though, what matters is what it does with it, and what it does is impressive -- the older the tech, the more impressive.
