Well, here's my extrapolated view of it. Forget about the rumours when the controller and the system was "announced" a few months ago, because this is, if you would believe it or not, really the Wii HD. We should instead look back at what was said about the system and rumours from long ago, like how John Davidson and, to a lesser extent, Michael Pachter called it a looong time ago. Let me give you a quote from mr Davidson anno 2008:
Davison admits details are sketchy but says his sources are pointing towards "a greater emphasis on digitally distributed and backwardly compatible content". Nintendo will once again focus on innovating the console's controller.
http://playsquad.commongate.com/post/Wii_HD_Set_for_2011/
So what's the controller, is it unique? Well in my mind they are at least showing us what was rumoured, a Wii HD. The controller is there to somewhat extend the life of the system and make sure that developers can use the Wii controller in future HD games.
The play of words, Wii (We) and U (You) is obviously trying to setup their strategy that the tablet controller is mostly used for single player and for the wii controller and it's extensions to live on when playing multi. Sure, I am not saying it is NOT disappointing that it looks like only one player will be supported with the new controller and probably miss out on some multi gameplay functionality, but will we cry if we play an FPS with a classical controller? Probably not.
So in reality, Nintendo is really giving us what we wanted all along, Nintendo games in HD.
Is it in latest, state of the art HD? Nope not really, but the fact that they might be able to evolutionize their Wii platform with a new control scheme, at the right price, might be enough for now. At least until Sony and Microsoft release their new console. Until then, anything in the marketplace can happen.