Really you can't compress almost 50 years of Nintendo hardware into just 2 categories, it's more like this (focusing mainly on consoles):
1st Age Of Nintendo Hardware (1983-1992 Good Tech Era): Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES), Yamauchi was president, Genyo Takeda head of hardware, Masayuki Uemura lead architect. Hardware was good for this time, Famicom for 1983 was quite good hardware, Sega's SG-1000 launched the same day in Japan and was almost a generation behind. For American consumers who wouldn't get the system until really 1986 (wide release), the NES represented a big step above the Atari 2600 that was the most popular console of the first half of the 80s. Super Famicom/SNES was another good hardware, outclassing the Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafx 16 (PC Engine), especially in arcade ports like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 2.
2nd Age Of Nintendo Hardware (1993-2003 More Cutting Edge Era): This era would see Nintendo working more with American tech companies to push tech. Devs like Argonaut Games who would bring 3D polygons to the SNES (Star Fox, Super FX chip). 1993 would mark also the year president Yamauchi signed a deal with Silicon Graphics of Jurassic Park/T2 fame, the big name is graphics processing of the time, to create the Ultra 64/Nintendo 64. In '94 Rareware and Nintendo would bring CG rendered graphics to the SNES with Donkey Kong Country rendered on SGI workstations. 1996 would see the launch of the Nintendo 64 with the ground breaking Super Mario 64. Nintendo would be developing a high end 32-bit handheld at this time also (Atlantis) but it would never release. GameCube is released in 2001 with terrific performance for an affordable $199.99, games like Resident Evil 4 and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II still look good today.
3rd Age of Nintendo Hardware (2004-2015 Blue Ocean/Low Tech Era): Launch of the Nintendo DS in 2004 sees Nintendo pivot towards more casual gamers as the first consoles under Iwata alone. Uemura, "father" of the NES/SNES retires. Things don't ramp up until 2005 with Brain Training/Nintendogs and then the launch of the Wii in 2006 with Wii Sports. Sales explode for a time, things are great. 3DS launch shows problems and a panic price cut, Wii U is a general flop, era kind of fizzles out as other devices like Kinect, iPhone, iPad, Android gaming turn that blue ocean red. Iwata under the gun as Nintendo posts financial losses in fiscal years for the first time in the video game era.
4th Age of Nintendo Hardware (2016-2024 Choppy Transition to Hybrid Era): Nintendo is in a transition period, Iwata passes away sadly in 2015. NX is their attempt to unify home console and handheld. Data breaches from Nintendo show the NX initially was supposed to be less powerful and have more of the design language of the 3DS/Wii U with only a 480p resolution touchscreen that has no buttons (more casual centric design likely aimed at smartphone users who ditched Nintendo after the DS/Wii) and only 1GB of system RAM (chipset was supposed to be from AT-Ericsson):
New interim Nintendo president Kimishima takes over. Design of the NX alters at some point and is now using the off the shelf Tegra X1 SoC with a 720p display, removable controllers (Joycons), no touch only. It looks to me like they kind of chose the Tegra X1 as a plan B, likely getting it at a great price but had no input really in the design of said chip. That said this chip was way better with HD capability and 4GB of RAM. Genyo Takeda, head of Nintendo hardware retires in 2017 after the launch of Switch.
5th Age Of Nintendo (Switch 2, Better Hardware): First hardware since GameCube made without Iwata's involvement, first new Nintendo hardware made without Genyo Takeda involved at all. Miyamoto semi-retired from games. New president Furukawa fully in control. New younger Nintendo hardware heads begin development on Switch 2 in 2020 in earnest amid the COVID pandemic which likely impacted the release window. First Nintendo system probably since the GameCube in 2001 that can plausibly run modern 3rd party games without it being a big deal, performs above its $450-$500 (bundle) price point.
If Nintendo had released that earlier design of the NX/Switch ... I think they honestly might be a 3rd party right now. That system would not have done well, 480p, 1GB RAM only ... yikes. Iwata was a likable person but he would have led Nintendo out of the hardware business with another flop, thank goodness they chose the Tegra X1 and Nvidia and abandoned the touchscreen buttons idea (another attempt at aiming for casuals that wouldn't have worked).
