Wii U Gamepad was awkward, expensive and worthless. No idea why Nintendo thought the Wii U was a good idea.

Thank you for the welcome.

Sorry, my thoughts get jumbled. I hope I can get my idea across.
I was wondering how combining the handheld and the home console was cheating. And I began to give my thoughts on why I thought it wasn't and in fact was a bad play (only in terms of how many units get sold), and then I go to explain that there were benefits to combining the two from a business point. Like most things, each thing has its positives and negatives.

I was saying that if there was a pure Home Switch (im gonna call this HS), and a pure handheld (which ill call NH), then the total amount of units sold would have been vastly different from what the reality of the Switch is doing now (Im really glad the Switch is selling 133+ million and I hope it reaches 160+). I was saying that the HS would sell almost equal to the Wii in terms of units, and the NH would be selling almost on par with the 3DS.
I make this assumption because the handheld market was oversaturated with DS, and 3DS. Everyone that wanted one got one, but there can be made a counterargument that the next generation wants a handheld, which is understandable. That's why I say it'll sell near the 3DS' total. There will be hard core fans (about 20-30 million) who buy it, and then 60-70+ million who buy it for their growing child (9-14 years old).
I hope that made sense.

I never made any speculation on what Nintendo would even do if it still had a dedicated home and handheld console, and honestly I don't want to think about what gimmick/ new innovation it would have because I'm not Nintendo. They do some whacky stuff.
And yes, I agree it would be detrimental and underpowered to do what you said, but I dont know what they would have done.

First of all it's not "candy-coated" it's neon, a much more adult-oriented color scheme.  Newsflash:  just because something has color doesn't automatically make it "for kids."

I think in concept, the Wii U GamePad is brilliant. The issue is the choices and missed potential.

-No game ever used more than one, despite Nintendo saying there would be games one day that would.

-Resistive touchscreen

-It technically uses Wi-Fi, but only to connect to the console and at very short distances. The GamePad should've been able to Remote Play from dozens if not hundreds of miles away provided the Wii U was powered on and the internet connection was robust. 

-It was always packaged with the console, increasing the cost. Additionally, basic things like setting up the console for the first time and certain other system settings require it. 

What should have been a sleek device that would appeal to core gamers looks like a Fisher Price toy. 

Wii U didn't support modern game engines at the time like Cryengine or Unreal. (Sonic Boom was forced to be on Wii U despite using Cryengine and it wasn't supported on Wii U) It used a CPU from the year 2000. I think Nintendo used their API and successor to the Gamecube/Wii API with GX2. 2012 we know devs were wanting to move to more standardized API and hardware. Wii U had neither. Switch does.

Never said it was. I just said that the Switch was not designed as a device focused on the "core gamer". It's a platform meant for anybody who wants to play games, including casual gamers, most of whom happen to be adults.

Tbh it's always been way too late for Nintendo for more core gamers to take seriously as a primary platform for all your mature 3rd party games.

Even if Nintendo were to make a console that's exactly like a PS5 in terms of specs and gets great 3rd party support and great online, I feel like most gamers still wouldn't trust Nintendo enough to leave Xbox & Playstation for Nintendo when it comes to having it as their primary platform for online 3rd party games, Nintendo has refused to compete with that market for way too long for them to try to change their image to work successfully.

Nintendo tried this somewhat with the Gamecube as well, had a system more capable than PS2, developer friendly now opting to use CDs instead of cartridges, and did try to get more 3rd party mature support with exclusives from Capcom like RE4 and others.
The problem is though all of Nintendo's attempts at this always felt lackluster, Nintendo still refused to pursue 3rd parties with the Gamecube at launch, had a console that looked childish in comparision to the others with bright colors. The Wii U was an even more pathetic attempt.

Now its to the point where Nintendo can't ever directly compete with PS/Xbox in that market cause nobody will trust them as being a direct replacement after all the years of refusing to get 3rd party games, high specs, and good online.

However, that's fine. Clearly as the Switch's success has shown they don't need to compete, in fact are better off doing their own thing, it makes them stand out more and less competition since they're so unique that PS/Xbox gamers will get a Switch for a different experience. Having your system also not be defined by its 3rd party games also helps Nintendo's bottom line since their games will be the forefront of their system with the least amount of competition, increasing first party sales which is much more profitable than 3rd party sales, and it's probably the main logic why Nintendo hasn't been very agressive in getting 3rd party support all these years.

But yea looking back at the Wii U's launch seeing Nintendo so confident that they were gonna bring the hardcore gamers back with a console that had an overclocked Gamecube CPU and last gen ports that ran worse was laughable, literally after one year virtually all 3rd parties left the Wii U as there was nothing but 1st party games.
The funniest thing about it to was that I remember Nintendo fans hyping up Devil's Third as the mature 3rd party exclusive that would prove the Wii U to be legit but it ended up getting like a 40 on Metacritic lmao, I swear the Wii U just seemed to fail at everything that gen lol

Too little, too late.

The Wii U Gamepad was a paradox.
If you want to take advantage for playing on gamepad only (no TV), you have to design you game to run in a single screen. However, if you design the game like this, you wont take full advantage of the extra screen.
So, games would be criticized for using the gamepad or for not using.
As consequence, few devs boarded in.
Mandatory Gamepad ruined it.

Also, if it was going to to compete with PS360, it came too late.
I think they should release 1 year earlier. Without the gamepad.
Launch two skus, one with Wiimote+ and SSHD and the last wave of wii games ported to wii U; other with the pro controler. Both should be far cheaper than the Wii U was.
Make the hardware to let devs just port X360 version of their game like they were with no effort, specially, not intending to innovate them with a second screen.
Launch gamepad separately as accessory 1 or 2 years latter.

The console was a weird hodgepodge of new gimmicks, DS-esque interface w/the multiple screens, hardcore games (for pretty much exclusively hardcore Nintendo fans) with some vague Wii marketing and themes. It's like Nintendo just didn't know what to do with the thing, while slapping some Wii branding on it in the wrong assumption that this is what sold the Wii when it was the more accessible games and simple motion controls.

I think the console just confused people, and the whole clunky gamepad controller and having to go through the Miiverse or whatever to play games was just cumbersome and turned people off, myself included. Thankfully Nintendo rectified this with the Switch, where you just flip on the console and jump into your game in seconds. It also helped that you can play Switch anywhere, whereas Wii U you'd have to be in the vicinity of the console - which even for a decade ago (can't believe it's been that long) wasn't all that impressive tech-wise. Its third-party support outside of Ubisoft was also awful, and the indie thing, which has become a haven on Switch, hadn't quite taken off yet. Though I did play a few on that console like Steamworld Dig and Unepic.

During this time I was full-on with the late 360 library (Borderlands 2, Call of Duty, Titanfall, South Park Stick of Truth), and had just gotten a new gaming PC and really into Far Cry 3. Didn't really have a need for it and sold it off after just a couple years.

Was pretty much my least favorite Nintendo console. I did enjoy NES Remix, Xenoblade X, Mario Maker, and aspects of Nintendoland, but that's about it.

The WiiU was honestly the preemptive attempt to make a Switch. They knew what they wanted but couldn't get the technology to match their vision. Nvidia stepped up and brought Nintendo their success.
Nintendo is always ahead of its time when it innovates.