As someone who posts daily in Nintendomination, I think Nation threads are just fine in the forums (well, for Nintendo fans. Have no clue what happens in PSNation or XBE). For example, what I do there is make a compilation of news related to Nintendo and sales data into one post, that could generate discussion which is not thread-worthy. An easter egg in Pikmin? Making a thread for that is useless, but in ND you can simply post it, and some people may have a reaction out of it. I consider them good, simply because it's a general discussion thread about anything Nintendo related, and negative talk (about other companies) are nonexistant. That's not to say they are perfect, as you said, they do appear noninviting. I just see it as "Nintendo general discussion" thread.
PS: I've seen longer OPs 
Bet with bluedawgs: I say Switch will outsell PS4 in 2018, he says PS4 will outsell Switch. He's now permabanned, but the bet will remain in my sig.
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