Of course it matters.
If a buy a product that i perceive to be the best, then i want the best out of it. And all the port begging that we hear is always in regards to console games.
The demand for handheld gaming is more about the portability factor than the type of handheld games.

It's hard to imagine Nintendo doing something wrong with Switch or someone replicating it, but it's not something that can't happen. Because it has.
And just because you start one way doesn't mean you are bound to live by that beginning.

Oh, I assumed we were talking in the realm of Nintendo handheld vs Nintendo console.

And why are we conveniently ignoring the side of their business that has sold over 75 million each generation?

Switch isnt just a console, its also a handheld so we have to compare it to both, not just one or the other.

Their handhelds have never once received ports of current AAA console games and have all done well so no reason to think they all of a sudden need them now.

Switch is the successor to 3DS, Wii U and essentially Vita (replaces it as the high end portable) so we should expect it to receive similar 3rd party support that those devices got which is a steady flow of small-medium sized games which includes

Indie games

Japanese games

Kid/family games

Previous gen ports/remasters

Those are the primary 3rd party titles it gets and will continue to get. Any AAA multiplat titles it recieves is just an added bonus.

That's just a statement to comfort skeptics and typical late adopters.

They will drop the system exactly as fast as they need to past the 5 holiday periods mark, if they don't experience proper support anymore.

I think you are giving Nintendo's Switch success too much credit.
If it's true that Switch was a big hit without the major 3rd party titles, it's also true that it had, what's being called, the best line-up ever for a console in year 1. Not to mention that it did something big: home console on the go.
Big first year in terms of 1st party titles (Mario, Zelda, MK, Splatoon) + HW selling factor (portability). Don't you think that, in theory, that mix could have been more than enough to cover for 3rd parties' absence?

If you ask me, that won't last forever.
As such, it would be best for Nintendo to gain as much support as it can, because all we know is that 2017 was a success, but that alone doesn't garantee things will keep going that way. Specially if Nintendo relies too much on it's own games (history shows us that it's not enough).

And that is why i said that Switch might suffer down the road if it can't broaden it's offer with 3rd party titles, 

I treat Switch for what it's being treated: home console on the go. And as fair as treatment goes, gamers and both Nintendo and developers, are treating it as such.
If i decided to compare it to a portable, that would be a mistake.

The perception and expectations for Switch or that of a home console, not those of a handheld.

Also, their handhelds lived pretty well without competition.
The only time that was different, was when PSP came to the market. But then, Nintendo had a DS.

At the end of the day, people are perceiving it as a console and it's also being treated as such.

If that's all Switch gets it will fall short of what it could achieve and that's not something that anyone who likes the console, wants to see happen.

Honestly, the biggest obstacle to this happening is Nintendo themselves.

What could kill the Switch prematurely is if Nintendo repeats the same mistake as the Wii and pulls the plug before its reached its full sales potential. I still reckon Wii could've cracked 120 million if they'd continued to push it through 2011 and 2012.

I think after unifying their hardware/software divisions, Nintendo's new approach is going to be to position the old platform as a budget device aimed at children and their new platform as their new core device; sort of like what they're doing with the 3DS and Switch. So when they say "we want to support the Switch for longer than a 5-6 year period", what I think they really mean is "we'll keep on supporting the Switch with cheap to develop games and child-friendly software while we pour the majority of our resources into our next platform".

Can't see this happening. Sales will most likely drop after PS5/Xbox release. At that point Switch won't be up to date anymore so that Nintendo will need to release a new console.

Cos 3DS stopped selling when the PS4/Xbone came out and DS when PS3/360 came out, right?