It failed to attract anyone, really. Nintendo positioned the Wii U early on as a jack of all trades, a console for the casual and the hardcore public.

Casuals moved on from the Wii, and had smartphones, or straight up didn't know the Wii U existed or what it was.

The hardcore crowd didn't want to upgrade from their PS360s because why would they? The Wii U hardware was barely an improvement over these two. Later on they just moved onto the PS4/XB1.

And yeah, the 3DS was a much cheaper option with a similar library of first party titles. A much easier buy for parents. 

The wii u sucked tbh. Dual screens only work when you can see both screens at the same time like in the ds and 3ds.

I would argue the console itself had a ton of problems beyond the marketing; brutal game droughts, an unappealing central gimmick, lack of third party support, etc. The marketing was definitely terrible, but it wasn't the system's only issue. 

I owned a Wii U myself and it was pretty miserable a lot of the time with only like 4-5 worthwhile games coming out per year with months of nothing in between.

Asymmetrical multiplayer had a lot of potential though 

Bold: I am more than happy to have this discussion with you provided you read through my responses carefully and don't try to undermine my arguments using fallacious tactics. Can you and I both agree, together, to be reasonable in this discussion and try to understand the other persons point? 

Which Switch 1 games aren't playable on a Switch 1 lite (definitely a handheld) if you just connect a pair of JoyCons to it?

The PlayStation Portable also had a few large open world games, f. e. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories + Vice City Stories and other large games like God of War: Chains of Olympus + Ghost of Sparta... didn't make the PSP a hybrid.

The PS Vita also had a few large open world games, f. e. Assassin's Creed Liberation + Uncharted: Golden Abyss... didn't make the PSP a hybrid.

All PC handhelds have no problem to play hundreds of large open world games... doesn't make Steam Deck & Co. hybrids.

Ring Fit Adventure, Nintendo Labo, and Nintendo Switch Sports are all sequels to Wii/WiiU games because looking at a 5 inch screen from 5 ft away is hardly an experience. I agree open world games are preferably played on TVs but are hardly unplayable in handheld mode. 

One thing I’ll say for certain: Nintendo brings out the hate in people like no other console manufacturer. It’s fricking insane that they managed to weather several storms of being the most ridiculed, despised company in the schoolyard many times over.

Stay true to yourself, kids. They may not understand you now, but give it time and the pendulum will swing back. Just keep working hard so you’re ready when it does.

Someone else replied to the first part already. As for the 2nd part. You seem to be putting words in my mouth. I never said that open world games arent made for handhelds but that generally they are more often associated with home consoles. Not sure what God of war has to do with this, definitely is not an open world game. 

The playstation portable consoles were generally going for home console gaming on the go type of idea, which would have some overlap with switch's union of home and handheld consoles. 

The games on the console don't dictate whether or not the console is a hybrid, portable or home console. But they can show the way that console wants to be perceived. The switch has a mixture of games that focus on different aspects of the console, some games are better portable, some are better at home. 

Also the pc handhelds are kind of there own thing. They are very niche and very powerful devices, that aren't held back by the usual constraints of handheld consoles.

Yeah it's genuinely weird and kinda unhinged how much hate they get.

Seems to be a combination of the usual hate that immature folks have for anything they perceive as "kiddy", fanboys of opposing brands wanting them to fail, and nowadays the grifter/ragebait economy targeting them cos it gets clicks and therefore ad revenue. 

There's definitely things worth criticising about Nintendo, but the number of people who make hating on their whole personality is just weird.