First off, I've been a Nintendo fan since SMB 1, and I literally own every console they ever released. So this notion that only non-fans are complaining can be officially retired, because I am proof that it's not true.

Second, I find it humorous that when it comes to outselling the PS2, the Switch is definitely the same thing. But when it comes to comparing its internals? Oh, suddenly it's a handheld and a different product and unfair to compare!

Here is the thing.

Nintendo had a choice to make a home console that could actually run GTA 6 without compromise, as well as every other AAA game that might like to come over to their platform. They chose not to. So now, as a consumer, I have no choice but to take that into consideration. Because at the end of the day, if all I own is a Switch 2, I'm stuck with gimped versions of certain games, or no versions at all, and I don't like that... and frankly, neither should anyone else. We are gamers, right? Meaning we are suppose to like games? Well, if you like games outside of Nintendo's IPs, you're going to need to spend like a grand now, because that Switch 2 is not going to cut it by itself... because again... Nintendo wanted handheld.

It was the market that decided that it didn't want home console Nintendo systems, other than the Wii they were on a big trend downwards for ages when it comes to the home console market. Only handheld Nintendo systems had a big enough market to justify continuing to exist. PS and Xbox already had the demographics that preferred home consoles, there wasn't a place left for Nintendo among those two.

Why would they make a dedicated home console when the Switch has been far more successful than any home console they've ever made, and especially more so than any of their power-competitive consoles?

That doesn't make it any less illogical to hold a hybrid/portable system to dedicated console standards when the two are fundamentally different. 

The hybrid form factor is the best path forward for them in terms of remaining successful, and within that form factor the Switch 2 is about as capable as one can reasonably ask for.

Ah, the good old "the switch doesn't count because it doesn't fit my agenda". And the Switch is a nintendo home cobsole that will soon be the best selling video game console of all time. Like it or not, just accept this fact and move on.

I know all this. I understand why they left the home console market. I understand why they basically released Switch Pro instead of something entirely brand new. I get it. But how does that change anything for a gamer? We're (as in Nintendo fans) still stuck with either owning one system that can't play certain games, or plays them worse, or spending over a thousand dollars to own both. We're still left with having to pay PS5 prices on a system with PS4 Pro specs, which sucks. And to make matters worse, they're gouging us (eighty dollars for something like Mario Kart? ridiculous). 

It all stinks, imo. All of it.

Given how well the Switch sold and high the attach-ratio was for games with an equivalent situation, is it possible that Nintendo is just specifically not catering to your personal preferences? 

Like I know people who paid scalper prices (up to $100) for Animal Crossing during the pandemic quarantine and you're suggesting an open-world racing game, a sequel to a game that sold almost 70 million copies, shouldn't be priced competitively with other high-selling titles?

What do you like about Nintendo, "as a Nintendo fan?" Do Nintendo games, like Mario Kart, have less value than GTA 6 in your opinion? 

Yeah.

And a motorcycle is a car!

If it was just me, the toxicity wouldn't be all over the place. There wouldn't be five million threads about it. Youtube wouldn't be infested with one negative video after another. People in the comments of those videos wouldn't be acting like rabid animals. If the price of everything was the correct price, meaning what the market considered fair, you simply wouldn't hear about it outside of a few people, and you'd have to search for them, because they would be buried under a sea of optimism and excitement similar to the internet-wide vibe after the S1 was close to launch.

But that isn't happening, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. This is not a small little band of trolls. This is a real problem. And as a Nintendo fan, I am not happy about it. They are the company of my childhood. I want to see them do well. And what they've done so far... is not well.