I would love ZERO load times, but I wouldn't like to pay an extra $10 for them per game.
See, this is where I get hazy. What are you basing this off of? If it's N64, I already addressed this. It's not even the same thing by a long shot. A $20 cartridge with with 10-20 times less storage is a far cry from a $5 card with similar storage capabilities. Using cards in 2012 when Cafe launches has none of the handicaps that N64 cartridges had. And if no one is using 25GB, that extra space means nothing. Sony and their 1st and 2nd party developers are pushing the size limit and knowingly writing unoptimized code and leaving data uncompressed. Everyone else is fine making games on Xbox 360 without Blu Ray and 99% of time on a single DVD. Square Enix used 2 DVDs for Final Fantasy XIII because they still feel the need to use CG. Same with Mistwalker and Lost Odyssey's 4 Discs. If Cafe is as powerful as rumors suggest, Square Enix will probably be the only company still wasting their time with CG cutscenes. As long as 3rd parties can put theirs games on Cafe and turn a nice profit, we'll see those games. However, that has little to do with the cards vs. discs and everything to do with Nintendo putting the right pieces together. I doubt any 3rd party is telling Nintendo "Blu Ray or GTFO" considering almost all of them have supported DS and are working on 3DS titles. Alternatively, I can see them telling Nintendo that they want more RAM, a faster CPU, a more powerful GPU, a better online service, more buttons on the controller etc. All of them potential dealbreakers because if Nintendo fails at providing any of those things, then 3rd parties can't bring over the same game to Cafe. If Cafe can't offer the same experience or better, Cafe gets a shittier version or nothing at all.
I'm basing this off the fact that large flash based cards are still gonna be multiple times the cost of a disc based format and 3rd parties are already "bleeding" money just trying to produce games @ 720p. The extra cost of actually pushing these games to 1080p and optimizing them to run off a cart that would likely cost whatever Nintendo feels they can get away with charging ($5-$10 a cart?) multiplied by 100,000 unit minimum order (just like they used to do back in the day) plus mandatory lead times on re-orders and all the other bullshit that comes along with 3rd parties having abandoned Nintendo when they last used carts leads to decreased 3rd party support and increased cost for everyone down the line which ends up costing me more to play the same games.
Lots of games now fit on 8GB disc because 1) the lead console was X360 & 2) most games are only pushing 720p assets anyway. I would imagine when 1080p games become the standard, the assets are gonna increase in size yet again and now 8GB disc won't be enough for lots of projects.
If you have a cart, cost rise to add more memory and then you have ot multiply that by every needed cart. On a disc you just add a 2nd layer for a few cents more. It adds up really quickly, especially when you start dealing in the 100's of 1000's or even millions of units.
1million disc @ $0.70 = $700k
1million carts @ $5.00 = $5million
there is your HUGE difference
Carts make sense on a handheld because disc use too much power (see PSP). Carts are small and the cost is necessary. To do the same on a console at the prices doesn't make sense to 3rd parties that are already not making any money trying to push the HD envelope. We would all LOVE to go back to carts for many reasons, but
none the overwhelming majority of us are not willing to pay the extra cost to play the same game.
Loading times suck, but if data is handled right, they can be minimal and some times almost not noticed. Not worth the extra cost at this point in time with the state that the industry is in at the moment.