One of the Wii U's biggest mistakes was having the Wii Remote take a backseat to the Wii U GamePad. A bulky tablet screen controller that was supposed to enable "Revolutionary new ways to play", but ended up being a mostly useless battery hog that even Nintendo struggled to find a compelling use for.

I know a lot of the "Hardcore Gamer TM" crowd here have a pathological hatred of motion controls (and to be fair some of it is justified, some of it isn't), but in all honesty, the Joy-Con controllers of the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 really should've been the standard controllers for Wii U.

The Joy-Con are pretty much the logical evolution of the Wii Remote + Nunchuck setup. They keep all the good aspects of them (Motion Controls, free-hand movement, the ability to hold them single handed) but remove the biggest limitations (Lack of buttons, the short cord). Had the Wii U launched a little earlier with a different name and a controller more similar to the Joy-Con, it probably wouldn't have been the miserable failure it was. And if you hate "waggle", then the controllers have the standard layout of a traditional controller, so you could play games normally if you wanted.

Absolutely not. The Joycons are the Switch's biggest detriment out-of-the-box, with their dinky-ass buttons and flimsy sticks, but at least I see their purpose for use with that particular system. Switching between modes or handing someone a second controller for table-top play at least makes sense. The compromise of comfort and ergonomics for portability somewhat justifies their design with Switch.

For WiiU, their limits and design make no sense at all. And while they would not have jacked up the price as much as the Gamepad, the Joycons still ain't cheap. Nintendo would have been better off just including a motion-plus Wiimote for WiiU instead, which has a far better stick and buttons (not to mention a frickin D-pad), and let people rely on the pro controller for traditional play.