First off, I'm pleased to see that you wrote this, Carl. You delivered the OP and main idea very well.
However, Nintendo is not really an angel. Now, I'm not saying that you said that, but I'm just stating things. How do we not know that Nintendo won't want to implement this? Nintendo was late to the "party" before, maybe they'll just be late again? Who knows, but if this DRM crap and pushing DLC becomes the main stream in the market (You know, like HD graphics and super fast always-online did last-gen, which Nintendo is currently trying to implement this gen) then Nintendo just might crumble beneath the "main-stream." And they might just implement these dandy "features."
I'm hoping that doesn't happen, because I really don't want Nintendo and (most) of the rest of the gaming industry to crash and burn, but you can't really dis-prove my point, can you? I can't really tell the future, though... 







