Agreed. I don't think Nintendo has historically skimped on packaging, which is really why I find this disconcerting. MS and Nintendo have been pretty on point in recent years and I expected much of the same for the Switch.
I'm not saying that the resale value is intrinsically tied to retaining the packaging. I completely agree that the value overall is high because of Apple hardware not dropping in price as quickly as competitors. I was just noting that including the packaging does slightly boost the resale value overall. Also, not everything Apple sells is $700. It's not like only the iPhone and Mac packaging is nice. The lightning cable I bought for $20 yesterday has beautiful packaging. The $170 AirPods have beautiful packaging. My $350 Xbox One S has beautiful packaging. My Wii U had pretty good packaging. It's not just that Apple, and it's not just expensive $700+ hardware that merits this stuff.
Disclaimer: am a packaging designer. I spend a lot of time obsessing over this stuff and feel very passionate about the concept as a whole, for reasons that are definitely valid. I think everyone in this thread would probably be ok with the Switch having nicer packaging, it's just that not everyone needs it because they don't give that area of their life much thought. Which is genuinely ok! I don't think I'm objectively right here, I just think it would have made sense for Nintendo to elevate things a bit.