Yeah, one of the worst things about Okami's implementation was ignoring the pointer
Uhhh, it DOES use the pointer...
Then is the WORST use of the pointer EVER!
It took me a while, but I finally found the flaw of their design, the remote has to be hold straight, with no tilt, to draw accurately. If I tilt the remote say 90° and I try to draw a horizontal line it will result in a vertical line, thats why I doubt they used the pointer, because the pointer doesn't have that limitation. My guess is that thats the reason of such disparity between the reviews of okami controls.
Some may argue that conveying caligraphy accurately is done better that way but those people don't have any sense of what "fun" and "entertainment" is.