I'm just saying, it's pretty obvious that there's no way to update Wii to have a system-wide patching system, so the alternatives to this are replacing the disc (which would have been A LOT more messy than this) or not getting any fix at all. Hindsight is 20-20, and it's too late for another alternative. There's no point in acting like there's something else they could have done. This was a pretty clever work-around, though.
That said, the fact the 3DS still doesn't have a patching system is horrifying. I really fear that Wii U will also lack it, making the system worthless for any game that isn't exclusive to it.
1) It's not like it's a case of "hindsight is 20-20". That expression applies when there are unintented consequences to a policy that only become apparent in hindsight. It doesn't apply to someone closing their eyes and plugging their ears, failing, and then claiming no one told them they were wrong.
Every time there's a disc recall (Fatal Frame IV, Endless Ocean JPN, Mario Party 8 EU, Super Paper Mario EU, Tales of Graces JPN, Card Fighters DS, Age of Empires DS) or unfixable problem (Metroid: Other M Wii, Tomb Raider Underworld Wii, Bubble Bobble Revolution DS, others) or even security issue (Super Smash Bros Brawl Wii, Lego <x> Wii, Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii) caused by either the technical failure or the administrative failure to implement patching, it's a constant reminder of this poor decision. It wasn't a hindsight thing. These are the obvious consequences of the choice they made. They were either myopic to the point of negligence or idiotic to the point of incompetence (and I refuse to believe it's the latter).
2) It's not whatsoever obvious that the Wii couldn't have been updated at some point in the past with a patching system. Again, amateur programmers have hacked on a generally functional patching system on top of the OS via Ocarina codes, Microsoft, Sony, Valve, and Apple have all majorly revised and/or expanded their patching architecture in the last 5 years.
I 100% agree that provided you move past the manifold ways that Nintendo screwed up on this, this is the most clever solution possible under the circumstances.
All the complaints are dumb, because there shouldn't have been a problem in the first place. Patches are a joke, just get the game right in the first place. Nintendo's apparently dropped the ball a couple times this gen, with long quality control cycles. They tend to marinate on finished games, there's no excuse why games should come out with breaking flaws at all.
There isn't a single software company, in any discipline of software, with any budget, with any development length, with any software complexity from the lowest level database CRUD app to the most complicated pieces of software developed ever, who can "get it right in the first place". It simply isn't possible.
It wasn't possible 25 years ago, it isn't possible now. NES and SNES games frequently had serious issues, and had to be re-released to fix bugs. Some of the most critically acclaimed games of all time have serious unpatched bugs. Consider Final Fantasy VI, which has some 150+ unpatched bugs in the final version including serious problems that corrupt saves relatively easily and major battle system bugs that break the game in several key ways strategically.
It's important to have rigorous testing procedures and I have no idea if this specific bug should have been caught before release or not, but the idea that "they should just get it right" is silly. It's not going to happen.
