Wii U hate on the internet is so forced ngl
It's just the Wii but better, a console which everyone seems to like (including myself) that alone gives it more value than I've heard some try to claim. The system had its number of problems, but I'm tired of people masquerading as if it had no worth or value, even by today standards. First up, the library itself was undeniably quality, otherwise Nintendo wouldn't have backported every single one of its highlights to the Switch, even its best-selling game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, was a Wii U game at its core for most of its life. The Wii U catalogue had undeniable importance when it came to the first few years of the Switch's lifecycle before Nintendo got more ambitious with 1st party games on Switch. While it had very bad problems with 1st party game droughts, so did the N64, a console that doesn't receive anywhere near as much flack for that. Even if it didn't have nearly the variety of some other Nintendo catalogues, it still contains some of the most significant games Nintendo has yet put out. Some of the problems I hear are overexaggerated and/or overblown.
While the console itself was undeniably underwhelming and poorly thought out as a next gen system, so was every other Nintendo home console to greater or lesser extents since the N64. Even the Wii barely lasted 4 years on the market before running out of steam after 2010, sales falling off sharply while the PS3 and Xbox 360 sustained steady growth around the same time. Similar stories with the GameCube and the N64 for other reasons we've all heard before. Even if the catalogue is all available on the Switch, the Wii U still has some reasonable value to stay plugged in in 2026 as a better way to play Wii games right out of the box, even before modding it makes for a much more complete and more versatile console than most other consoles can say. Before anyone tries to say modding shouldn't be counted in any real capacity, everyone and their mom has a modded original Wii so this should be equally fair game as much as that says. 3 generations of native Nintendo home console support with mods (Wii U, Wii, and GameCube), emulators up to the N64, region unlocking, backup game support, hacks for vWii mode all make it a great value to keep around.
And honestly the OS isn't that much slower or clunkier compared to other consoles of the same time, it solidly beats the Xbox One in responsiveness and cold boot times for what that's worth, and that was an actual next gen system released after the Wii U. The Xbox 360 and PS3 menus aren't anything to write home about in flow either, booting to the home screen from in game or applications feels comparable in speed to the Wii U. Only thing I really can't stand about the OS is needing the gamepad to change system settings, that was a horrible design choice. The gamepads battery life is dreadful, especially after years of degradation, but Nintendo made them user replaceable for a reason, unlike the DualShock 3 which also can barely hold a charge after this many years. Just because the system was bad in sales doesn't inherently make it less worthwhile, otherwise systems like the GameCube, Dreamcast, PS Vita (which are all consoles I also love) wouldn't have the cult followings they do. I could go further about some more minor stuff but as acknowledged those would be trivial points compared to what I really wanted to add.