Nintendo doesn't like excess and consistently produces modest numbers when it comes to just about anything. All that talk of Nintendo intentionally withholding stock of Amiibo or NES Classic or Switch to drum up demand was always nonsense. Nintendo wants to sell things but doesn't want to be caught in a situation in which it has a bunch of units left over. That's fair to a point.
While Nintendo isn't twirling its mustache while plotting underhanded schemes to build hype, it's naive at best and incompetent at worst. Based on some cursory googling, fewer than three million NES Classics were sold in North America as of April 2017. That means, Nintendo somehow thought it may not sell out three million nostalgia machines. Really, guys? NES is one of the most beloved consoles ever created, and Nintendo actually had to be convinced to produce an additional run to still produce fewer than three million units overall. Playing it safe would be the understatement of all understatements in the video game market. Nintendo could have comfortably produced seven or eight million NES Classics. They were cheap enough that after the people who really wanted it got one, future scalpers would have scooped up the rest and made a killing in 10 years.