It is kind of ridiculous. It's like saying what if the Wii had a blu-ray drive and cost $250. Sure you can say what if, but what ifs apply to all systems. What ifs are not the current reality.

If the Wii were a small hypoallergenic dog, it would be purchased by the President-elect :P ;)

I'm 38. I suspect if you really did cut your teeth on games like Galaxian and Defender, you wouldn't have one issue with the graphics of the Wii. While not on PS360 levels, they are likely far and away beyond what you ever thought you'd see on a home console, and surely your heritage would have taught you how game play is superior to image (or did you play Vanguard for the story?)

As for the Wii, it sells because it is simple and fun. The controls are intuitive. Think about all the breakout games in the past - usually little more than a joystick and one or two buttons. There's a reason Defender never became a cultural phenomenon like Donkey Kong, and the only game that garnered broad appeal among females was PacMan, which just had a joy stick (or it could be that it was about eating, and according to some surveys, many women prefer food to sex...).

"Core" gamers are comfortable with complex controls, and often get off on the sweatly palms and pulse pounding finger twitching of titles like Halo, but true hardcore gamers are a minorityof the gamers, and gamers of any stripe were a minority of the broad population.

Nintendo set out with the intent to make everyone, especially women, gamers, while Sony and MS chose to chase after the same crowd that has been playing games for the past 30 years.

Just ask Rol.

I resent that!  Why can't we have both?  At once?  

that very same question probably led to creation Mr. Pacman's wife

@ OP; Interesting question. I believe this is the most polarising issue of this gen.
Why is the Wii by far the most successful console? Does it deserve that accolade? It’s approaching 50% market share, but why? Lots of people have an opinion, and very few opinions match. Here’s a lurker’s take on it.
I didn’t play games from 2000-2006. I had other things to do which were more important than spend hours of my leisure time in front of the TV. I had an extensive gaming background, but not only was I too busy, I felt like gaming was played out. The GC/PS2/XB gen provided nothing compellingly different to what I’d played before. The odd Monkey Ball or GTA session at a friend’s was fun but didn’t make me want to drop the money on a console. I’d played FPS, RTS, sims, platformers, stealth, beat-em-ups, shmups and most other things and felt uninspired by what litle was new on offer. So what made me re-start gaming?
I got a DSL in Oct 2006 with Brain Training and MKDS. After the shop demo of BT, I was sold. Going by the sales, I wasn’t the only one. Short bursts of Trauma Centre, EBA, Pheonix Wright etc were a new interface experience to what I had before and it completely re-kindled my interest. The Wii was a logical next step, and I had a blast with Wii sports, MP3, Galaxy and especially RE4. More recently, PES 2008 dominates every other football game I’ve played. And if it wasn’t for that speculative DS purchase I doubt I’d have upgraded to a gaming rig. I believe this is “moving upstream”?
There are millions of gamers for whom fun isn’t 4 hour sessions with 1080p and surround sound. Just as some long in the tooth gamers don’t understand the Wii’s popularity, I don’t understand why they can’t see the obvious appeal to other demographics. As if the Wii needs games like Kane & Lynch, Army of Two or Assassin’s Creed to be “worthy”. I’ve a hunch the full extent of Wii Fit’s influence won’t be felt till we see the plans for the next gen of consoles several years (months?) from now.
Thoughts?

Some day, I suspect that the term "the rest of the world" will exit the vocabulary of the average person, as it rather seems that the concept behind it is already eluding many of them as it is. There's a peculiar caveat involved in that term, that being that the only person guaranteed to share your interests is yourself, is of course not so hard to understand. What does seem to evade people is the logical extension of this, that the odds of people not sharing your interests is exponentially larger.

To put it in another, less pretentious fashion, the reason why the Wii is popular is simply because it panders to more than the usual tastes that video game consoles are designed to appeal to. Indeed, if anything, its appeal lies primarily outside of the dominant tastes pandered to by most game systems. And it brings up a grand point: there's always more of "them" than there are of "us" when "they" are all people not like "us", and "us" is a specific group of people.

Yes. Everything you said is true. Specially the bolded part.

There was sex in Ms. Pacman?  Lol, j/k.  Although I must admit that I enjoyed Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness.  I wonder what ever happened to my copy of the game...  Oh well.  

Well, there's your answer folks: The Wii provides women with food and sex simultaneously!  With Cooking Mama and force feedback, the sales just won't stop!