Nintendo is very paranoid about protecting kids. Not saying lack of these features should be given a pass, but it's fairly consistent with Nintendo's culture that the Switch lacks these things, at least at launch.
Perhaps some communications features can be added later, with the ability to lock them via parental controls.
Nintendo develops robust parental controls but then they are pointless since there is no chat anyways. The paranoia is bullshit at this point in time where cell phones and the internet are ubiquitous. It's quite simply bad business at this point.
Make it so that you need to use a credit card or whatever to unlock parental controls. Not having the option today is unacceptable.
I'm just worried about a bait and switch with the online revealing to be awful after people have already bought it.
That's why I'm not buying.
We don't know how region free works.
We don't know about OS level online features such as friend lists, voice chat, lobbies , etc and how they work.
Headsets apparently not supported. Implementation through phone app is still completely lacking in detail and who knows how it works in portable mode with headphones on the switch.
We have very little idea how digital content management actually works.
We don't know what happens to our VC games from WiiU and 3DS
etc.
People think these small issues are not a big deal, but they add up to a very common perception that Nintendo is backwards and far behind when it comes to online features. Doesn't matter? Ask devs about why DLC is frequently missing from Nintendo versions or why some games don't make the cut. Doesn't matter? Look at WiiU sales. Worse selling Nintendo console ever. Nintendo CAN'T AFFORD to be playing catchup. They should instead be leading.