Not really because the lack of media features that other consoles have and the removal of optical tech should help save on the costs, going by Miyamoto's words they seem to want an affordable price no matter what so chances are they sell at a loss if need be. The Patent also said example unit indicating the may be differing models.

There is no proof that people simply got bored of the Wii Remote, yes things like Kinect & Smart Devices started to eat into that market but that doesn't mean the ship had sailed, if that were the case than Wii wouldn't have sold another 20 million post-2010 when it basically got no support outside of Zelda & the Just Dance/Skylanders combo every holiday.

Holiday 2008 did not have weak releases, those games u mentioned, Animal Crossing: City Folk & Wii Music along with Guitar Hero: World Tour were all big releases that averaged about 4 million sales each on top of evergreen titles like Wii Sports/Play/Fit, Mario Kart still moving units.

This is why I hate the "casual" term, u are referring to all casuals as a single group of people who all share the same opinions/tastes, that's not how it works. Based on how ur talking, this is the video game market.

Hardcore-$60 AAA console games

Casual-free/$1 mobile games

Im sorry but ur pretty ignorant if u dont think there is any type of middle ground between those 2 markets.

Removing the disc drive would save them maybe $10 ... disc drives are dirt cheap these days. 

I don't think there is much of a middle ground to be honest. Not as much as people think. 

If I like playing simple games without lots of buttons, simple arcadey games, what appeal would any console offer me?

More intuitive control? No. Multitouch touchscreen is so easy even 3-4 year olds use it with no fuss, where motion gaming can actually be more frustrating (commands don't register, you have to point the pointer, the camera loses track of what you're doing, Wiimote constantly needs to be resynced, etc. etc. etc.). 

More games? No. iOS/Android marketplaces are vibrant with tons of new games constantly being added. 

Price? Not even close. Nintendo/Wii and Microsoft/Kinect are not even remotely competetive here. Cannot compete with free/$1 games. 

Convienance? Nope. My phone is in my pocket all day and on my nightstand at night, I can play when ever I want, where ever I want. Wii or Kinect? You need to be in your living room, and you probably need to have family over to have any fun with the thing. No thanks. 

Now gamers here will scream "bu ... but quality games!", but if I'm a casual, I'm not playing even a 3D Mario game. Forget Zelda or Gears or Last of Us or Halo or GTA. None of that matters to me. 

All the break out casual hit games today are on iOS/Android too ... Candy Crush and all that. The last big break out casual game on home consoles was what? Just Dance? That's what? 5 years old now? It's not really that hard to see why the audience for simpler/more casual experiences is completely domianted by Apple and Google ... Nintendo and MS just do not stack up at all. 

A 10-year-old wand controller isn't going to turn this tide.