I agree (with both of your paragraphs), however, WiiU IS a monstrous advance beyond the Wii...

So the question is, will people (and I mean the non-loyal masses, not fanboy enthusiasts) lean more toward making their Nintendo games "up to par" with what they're used to for a reasonable price, or lean more toward making their God of Wars and Halos "even prettier" for a higher price?

I guess the bigger question is to anyone who already has a PS3/360 ... why do they need a Wii U?

A friend of mine asked me this point blank yesterday, and honestly I couldn't answer him because I know he's not a big fan of Nintendo franchises. 

No one (but Nintendo fans maybe) are sitting around waiting for Nintendo to join the HD party, they've been quite content playing on their PS3s/360s for the last 5-6 years. 

This is where Nintendo really needs to prove what innovation and advantages the Gamepad makes possible.  If developers embrace that, then there's a good chance that consumers will.  If consumers embrace it, there's a chance developers may not (see: Wii), but WiiU gives them far more opportunity to do so due to its hardware and the fact that it will always remain the cheapest of the 8th gen consoles, giving it an advantageous selling point.

Also worth noting is whether or not Nintendo can secure more exclusive 3rd party titles ala ZombiU, Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2.  Those games alone may not be enough to make a lot of PS360 owners want the console, but what about another half dozen or more of them?  Nintendo doesn't need to worry about people who hate them, as they clearly don't need their support, but there's still room for them to court those who are not especially partial to them, particularly as the console's price comes down. 

The gamepad is a neat addition, but I don't think it's a game changer the way the Wiimote was.

This is kinda like Sony trying to woo Wii owners with Playstation Move ... hey it's more accurate than the Wiimote! Yeah, that's true ... who really cares.

The biggest thing the gamepad brings to me really is the web browsing/Youtube/remote control stuff, to me that stuff does stand out from any console out there, because I don't use my 360 pad to turn on my TV, that's for sure.

^Cool story bro!

I'm sure nexgen will allow advanced multi tasking which would allow you to pull up a youtube video while playing a game..

I have a PS3 i use it all the time. but the wii u is a new console and the hype is geting to me.
i played the wii u in walmart and its pretty cool . iam going to pick one up after christmas

You can do that with the Wii U.

It's a combination of Wii U sales being good but not great, and Nintendo working alot harder to make the console available for as many people as possible before xmas. The fact it hasn't yet launched in Japan helped them get decent stock quantities to the US this time.

do you have to pause the game to do that?

And that's why I said nexgen,  because the vita can do that too