If you're making a massive AAA release, then yes, very powerful hardware is a necessity. But for everything else, you don't really need it. We've seen tons of developers support the Switch even in spite of its weaker specs, simply because it's a cheap, easy to develop for console with unique features, and a large userbase.

Yes but that's the way games work these days everything is ported to all hardware. Look at steamdeck it only sold 3 million yet everything runs on it for the most part, that doesn't really tell you anything about how much effort Nintendo to get thirdparty support and with switch 2 being so late it just confirms to me anyway that they don't care.

Maybe, just maybe... Developing new game platforms takes multiple years and tons of resources, on top of a global pandemic that kicked off the decade, which caused a ton of chip shortages and game delays.

I don't think that excuse holds any water. Ps5 came out at the end of 2020, switch 2 coming out end of 2023 should not be a issue.

PS5 was already done by the time the pandemic hit.

Obviously, Nintendo consoles are very much driven by first part games. But I never really bought the line that "Nintendo actively hates third parties because grr!!!", they may have had a pretty hostile attitude towards them in the Yamauchi days, but definitely not in the Iwata and beyond years. With GameCube, Wii, and Wii U, we did see genuine efforts by Nintendo to attract other developers to their home consoles. Even if it didn't always pan out the way they wanted, you can't say they didn't try to make their stuff look appealing.

I don't think Nintendo hates third party, but I do think they go with novel hardware that changes the way gamers play.  And that doesn't always fit third party plans.  

It depends. The N64, GameCube, and Wii all had weird, non-standardized button/control layouts which were great for some games, but not so great for others. Meanwhile, even with the Switch's Joy-Con controllers, you still get a pretty standard controller setup out of the box. So Nintendo systems generally have the best third party support when they balance innovative controller features, with conventional norms.

I'd take what you said a bit further. The NES and SNES weren't standard controllers either - there was nothing like them before they launched, at least not in the mainstream. I'd also say the Switch was a unique controller design that advanced on the Wii concept, it just combined the classic controller into the joy cons with an attachment. But, I do agree that Nintendo has been (since at least the Wii) trying to make their controllers backward compatible for their entire libraries.

The Gamecube is probably the only controller that doesn't really work for the previous generations (try playing NES or, even worse, SNES games with it on Wii VC).