No offence, but it's weird seeing multiple Nintendo fans claiming backwards compatibility is deathly important. Were you not Nintendo fans from 4th -> 5th -> 6th gen of home consoles? Or did you just put up with the lack of backwards compatibility?
For me, I used to think it was a deathly important issue. But when PS3 didn't have backwards compatibility, I managed. I never trade my consoles in anyway so it was simply a matter of space to me, and I have enough space to have multiple consoles out at once.
Comparatively, my Wii is backwards compatible but I do not use it to play Gamecube games. I mostly play GC games with friends (Mario Kart; Super Smash; Wario Ware) and if we're doing that we simply dig the GC out because it's small and compact enough.
So yeah. It's a nice bonus to have, but I've learnt that it's far from a deal breaker for me.