Hm, interesting post since my thoughts are pretty close to yours. I believe the reason Nintendo pushed the "Core" PR so much last E3 was because they knew nobody but gamers would care about the announcement of a gaming console due some 1+ years later. Are they looking to get those gamers/us back? Sure!
Maybe a thing where we differ is that I see them getting back some strong support at least in Japan, but even across the board as long as the featureset allows ports on minimal budgets. I expect it and it would be a surprise to me if that doesn't happen.
E3 will probably see more Wii-type games than some people hope for, but as you noted Nintendo's software will not the argument to turn non-believers to their console.
Fans will rejoice, haters will continue to flame; hopefully 3rd parties will still change a few hearts.
Maybe I went overboard with quesdtion marks, but exclamation marks feel so rude haha. Also american football is being pushed pretty much and the Superbowl is the biggest sports event in the world.
But yeah. Nintendo needs to transition certain subgroups of players onto their systems and I feel they are doing a good job of it on 3DS. It seems a few groups still need a bit of convincing that a Nintendo system could actually see a full-blown effort from 3rd parties, but if Nintendo persists and 3rd parties don't throw the towel it should work.
Example: 360 in the west, securing certain fanbases - how to not do it: 360 in japan, just giving up midway
