Here's what I think my current point is.
In the NES era, Nintendo abandoned the joystick in favor of the D-pad, and they ushered in a revolutionary new control style.
With the SNES, Nintendo refined the d-pad-based controller into what is quite possibly the most perfect controller of it's kind.
Then with the N64, Nintendo revolutionized again with analog. It wasn't perfect, but analog carried it.
Then with the Cube, Nintendo refined the analog controller, reacting to everyone else's refinement of their idea, but it was clearly flawed. Me Ian and a number of other people could plainly see it, but Shiggy said it was perfection and half the Nintendo fanbase had their heads too far up his butt to see otherwise.
Now Nintendo's revolutionizing again, with a 3D space controller. And if you ask me, it's far from perfect. It's strengths (as great as they appear to be) are going to have to carry it's flaws yet again. And I know I'll probably be flamed for saying it.
And at this same time, Nintendo is finally admitting that they failed to perfect the analog controller with the Cube. And that they're trying again with the shell. I've got mixed feelings on the matter. On the one hand, I think they're right to make improvements. On the other, I wonder if maybe they're a little too late for that. They've moved on to the Revmote. Also, the GCN controller didn't exactly suck, and any improvements would likely be minor. Is that significant enough to justify an incompatible redesign? Should we just allow Nintendo to go back on their 2002 claims, and make similar new claims, without raking them over the coals a little? I think I'm starting to ramble, but those are just some of my thoughts on the matter.