Kinect is an incredible piece of tech. It really is. And it should be a part of the console, just as much as the controller is. That way, developers can build amazing games and experiences that can be experienced by everyone, that don't have to fall back on the controller for others.
Having Kinect as an accessory just diminishes its worth and it becomes useless, just like the original. You get a fragmented player base and a bunch of noncommittal developers who just bolt-on features for the sake of it.
What I've written above has been my view since Durango started leaking. People moaned about always-online and no matter what people may have said, I always maintained that raising the ecosystem's bottom line to assume that all players are connected will make for more compelling experiences we've seen this already with games like Titanfall, that require an online connection, for example. Now that Microsoft caved in, the promised experience has been diluted somewhat.
The same is happening right now with Kinect. And you know what? It's completely your fault, Microsoft. You have a kick-ass piece of kit right here. Your key differentiator against the PS4. And you blew it. Your launch titles have no Kinect integration whatsoever, apart from the same last-generation bullshit voice commands and head tilting. None of the incredible experiences you touted behind closed doors in the summer last year were there at all. Your job as a first-party is to show off what your tech can do and basically, you blew it. My Kinect is just sitting there, with such promise. And I'm just sitting there waiting for someone to bloody do something with it. And because you haven't, everyone and his dog wants you to ditch the damn thing, just like last time. And you know what? I don't blame them one bit.