I don't think the intention would be to "wow" people. It'd be to accommodate a broader pool of users.
The big hook for the Wii Remote wasn't so much that it was impressive. It was that it was more natural for many people to use compared to a traditional controller. Part of that was its remote-like form factor, and part of that was that motion controls were more natural for doing actions in 3D space for people who weren't already gamers.
The benefit of a controller that ditches physical buttons on the face for a touch screen that can provide haptic buttons is that the controller can do double duty. It can be a traditional controller for traditional gamers - it has two analog sticks, and can provide whatever buttons are needed for whatever game. It can also be a touch-only controller, that is, one that doesn't just have a touch screen but that doesn't need to have any buttons on its face at all.
I think this is probably what they're shooting for, if this is indeed the route they're taking.