I can see third parties jumping all over this. Microsoft and Sony will do the same thing for their new consoles.

Sony's already doing this, though there's usually a delay before PS3 retail games hit the Playstation Store.  The Vita, though, has had every retail game so far AFAIK up on the Playstation Store on the same day as the retail version launches.

Come on Nintendo, you're on a role! Don't fail us now!

Hmm, is Nintendo going to handle the whole shop? That would make the most sense. It will work differently to the other services since Nintendo seems to be pushing the angle of retail stores selling codes for (hopefully) all the digital versions of every game.

Microsoft is doing it too, I recently found out. They have over 300 retail XBox 360 titles available for download.

Yeah I didn't know the extent of Microsoft's On Demand service, so I was hesitant to mention it.  I usually only hear it mentioned in regard to original Xbox titles.

What happens to my game if my hard-disk becomes corrupted or fails? Is it like if I scratch my disk?

On the other platforms it's tied to an account, so you can redownload it on a different unit. With Nintendo, you'll probably have to send it back to them and they'll transfer them for you, at least until they move to an account system, which I believe has been rumored.

Not just rumored. They officially confirmed it will.

The question we all really want to know the answer to is will the Wii U have some equivalent of the Trophies/Ahievements of the other systems? And if not, why not?

Very true, but that was months ago (right? Or is my scale of time totally effed?) and we haven't heard anything further. We can assume they will have it worked out by the digital download revolution in August, but until it does, there is reason to worry.