I don't think its a matter of not feeling the same, I think most of the people who have a problem with it either don't want to bother to get a drive (and would overpay for one built in) or feel this will somehow affect developers and the online functionality.

I personally think it won't affect anyone and it is a great thing to be able to use whatever external drive we want

Unfortunately this is Nintendo and even pro consumer choices are somehow bad for us according to forums -_-

If they included their own hard drive it would jack up the price far more than buying separate storage ourselves. It also means that consumers who don't want or need massive amounts of storage don't end up paying for something they will never use. Whereas consumers who want large amounts of storage can buy it for MUCH cheaper than they would if it was included with the system. 

A quick look at amazon shows I could get a 1TB HDD for £70 (I actually already own two of these and they are very good and reliable) or a 32GB SD card for £15. If game company itself was putting a 1TB HDD or 32GB SD card in a console then you can guarantee the price would be jacked up WAAYYYY more than that. 

My guess is to make it simple for casual gamers they will sell a line of Wii U branded SD cards that have the right feature set etc. 

Haters gonna hate, but 8GB storage is the infallible recipe for galactic success! XB1 is the proof!

Right, but Xbox's 5 Gig HDD was part of the reason that the device never made Microsoft one red cent, given that it was rather awkward to produce throughout the system's lifespan. NAND memory is, as others have stated, cheap, and sufficient for low-end downloads and game saves

Well, we don't know at what price the Wii U will debut, so it could very well come out at $399 with the bare minimum. I'm thinking that most of the costs for the Wii U will most likely come from the GamePad, although there's not enough information really to go off of yet to determine that.

While providing your own means of storage is cheaper, there's no word on exactly if we'll be able to use any old HDD. Nintendo could use a Microsoft and use proprietary drives, which means they could charge whatever they want for extra storage.

I never said it didn't. I was merely stating that since the Wii U will support up to two GamePads, then a lot of people will most likely want to buy a second one. Considering I think it will be rather expensive, that's going to set people back some money.

One of the reasons why 8GB internal storage is crap is because Nintendo has stated they're moving into providing a digital format of all their games. Considering this is a move to HD and we all know the size of games this gen with the PS3/360, 8GB of internal storage won't be enough, especially if people adopt the download-only option of gaming on the Wii U. At the moment, given that there isn't enough information about whether we'll be able to use any single external HDD, 8GB is definitely not enough.

Yeah the patches for Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 alone would fill all of the 8GB already ^^

The GamePad is not a tablet PC; it's a controller with video/data streaming capabilities. There are a lot of missing components that contribute to the overall cost of tablet PCs from SoC, system memory, local storage, etc. etc. that simply are not in the GamePad. 

As I alway say, I'll wait until iSuppli does its teardown and BoM assessment upon the Wii U's release, but my guess is that the controller will cost less than $100 to produce and assemble. Possibly as low as $60.

If Nintendo goes the MS route of proprietary formatted/packaged, Xbox branded HDDs, then I think there will be legitimate reason for consumers to complain. While it would be a good idea for them to have Nintendo Wii U brand HDDs available for lesser informed consumers, or even just consumers who want matching external HDDs that go with the Wii U design (nothing wrong with that at all) that can easily be picked up at the same retail outlet where the consoles are sold, the option to use an existing HDD is one that I would imagine most buyers would opt for.