I avoid the console nation threads because it's a big circlejerk.
I keep to the Vita thread because there's a lot of micro-news not worth a thread, and due to the very nature of what you've stated. Every new Vita thread was accompanied with no games, poor sales, etc. to the point where people were force to create the single place where Vita stuff was able to be discussed.
Honestly, if jackasses would be able to avoid threads they're not interested in, we wouldn't have a problem.
Edit: Honestly, I see them as a necessary evil. In an ideal world, the people in the nation thread would be the only ones posting in a news thread that would have normally just been posted in the nation thread.