1.) Is it wise to be purchasing a 3DS now?
Probably not.
A couple of months ago, you could be part of the Ambassador program and take advantage of the price drop - a pretty good deal for people who took advantage of it. But now you are probably better off waiting to see if there are any Black Friday sales. System pricing won't change, but with a bit of luck there might be package deals with a game or gift card to help move units. In the worst case, there will be more games available and probably some of the launch games will be marked down to clearance pricing as well.
However, if you were going to buy a DS or DSi then it's probably better to just put that money towards a 3DS instead.
2.) Do you guys think Nintendo will be releasing a 3DSi?
I strongly believe there will be a revision. Not sure if it will be released next year, but expect that it will be announced. (My guess: the revision will be released at the same time as a blockbuster game, maybe Monster Hunter 4, to help push system sales and encourage the existing user base to upgrade.)
3.) and even though it could be corporate suicide do you think Nintendo should release an update as you may believe that a second circle pad is a significant addition modern handheld gaming and that without it the 3DS is simply a flawed system
The system isn't flawed, but if many important games are being designed for dual-analogs instead of using the system "as is" then I think that a hardware revision will include the second analog input as well. Only time can see... but if I hadn't already bought-in then I would be waiting to see what is going to happen before investing in a 3DS console. (Of course, there aren't really going to be any 3DS games I want this year anyway, so that's easy for me to say.)