A lot of posts so I'll address them in general.
1) Off the top of my head: Mario Party 10, Captain Toad, Project Giant Robot, Project Guard, Nintendo Land, Wonderful 101, Super Mario 3D World, Fatal Frame, ZombiU, Splattoon, and probably a few of the upcoming titles all have gamepad features. Several of them are literally unplayable or have large portions of content that you can't do without it.
The problem with the gamepad runs deeper than cost, it's usage. A lot of the issues with 3rd parties from the beginning wasn't a lack of power but they tried telling them they must use the game pad when they themselves haven't sold anybody on it. ZombiU was a great example of using it well. Zelda is another example of using it well because you don't have to break gameplay to swap items. Now they need to sell this idea as more than offscreen play, which they're trying to do now with Mario Party 10 and Captain Toad, and possibly whatever Retro has been working on since they wrapped up DKCTF and went into seclusion.
If from the start Nintendo had shown players why they "needed" a game pad instead of a standard controller, people would have bought the Wii U and third parties would still be on it.
2) Advertising isn't a magical wand that sells things, but it's damn near it and the closest humanity has ever come to such a thing. Smart advertising will sell an inferior product is what Apple has built their entire business model on. Hell, it's what MS is trying to do right now. Look at the McRib or the Tickle Me Elmo, they're both godawful products that nobody likes but everybody wants.
3) Nobody's going to buy your new console if you roll over with a new one every two years when sales go sour. Also, the New 3DS is in a different boat. It hasn't erased the 3DS and it's almost necessary for the most popular game series on the console, plus it opens the handheld market to ports of popular Gamecube/Wii titles, providing a stream of "new" games without taking much of Nintendo's time, effort, or money, which should be focused on the Wii U. The machine is now turning a profit on sales, just not at a rate they'd like. Better to make money slowly than to shoot yourself in the foot.
4) I'm sure Bayonetta 2 and Devil's Third will bring them some profits. Even if they don't sell nearly as high as they should, they will bring more consoles into the fold by reaching to the untapped demographic than by reaching to the demographic that's tapped out or will be soon with Smash, Zelda, Star Fox and Mario releases on the way. These purchases essentially exist only because of these titles.
A lot of you are writing it off as a loss on publishing cost, but not considering three things. A) Nintendo needs games more than they needed the money, especially in this demographic. B) Nintendo swooped in and saved these games already in production, saving money, time, and human resources. C) While Bayonetta 2 may not have been worth it to Sega to publish, Nintendo makes a profit on the attached consoles as well so they're likely to benefit more from less copies sold than Sega or any other publisher.
5) Between Steam, Newegg, and Youtube, becoming a PC gamer is easier and cheaper than ever. You can also just use your awesome TV instead or a monitor, and buy a 360 windows controller. At this point, my computer is just a really badass console with far greater multimedia functions. I start a game on my 32inch tv, lay in bed, and play with a 360 controller. The initial investment is usually greater, but cost over time is less: You likely need a computer anyway and steam games are dirt cheap in comparison.
The more PC-like consoles become, the easier it is to just use a PC. That's why I say it's an evolutionary dead end to focus simply on graphical prowess and multimedia function instead of gaming.
