"Me, I buy systems for the software that's available, not because of who made the hardware.
Not me. I would like to buy a Sony to support the direction they are going hardware wise, but...
"Commodity and the quality of software possible on a given platform means nothing to you,"
I think software is one of Nintendo strong points (mostly their software) and why I bought a Gamecube.
When I chose Gamecube I chose it for the then to be released MarioCart DD, Super Monkey ball 2 and Godzilla. In retrospect Godzilla soon came out for xBox and slightly less cool version of Monkey Ball came out on xBox. And the gamecube is less "hackable." All in all though I still love my cube because it DOES have the games I like to play except the driving games. :-( To be fair all the consoles have a lot of interesting games and I think everybody missed out on one or two of their choice title except those hardcores who bought more than one. I am too pressed for time or money to fool with that,