Meanwhile, the GameCube, Wii, WiiU, DS(i) and 3DS were cheaper consoles with cheaper/similar priced games, using basically the same infrastructure, and they all had / still have free online play.Here's the thing, It DOES cost nintendo money to maintain the infrastructure involved with their online services. Even the things you do not need a subscription for cost them money. Even the infra that sends you your system updates costs them money in maintenance. So yeah... you dont have to pay if you dont want to but the fact they made it free for the first year does not automagically mean it still should be free.
Let's face it, Nintendo is free to ask money for online play since they're just following Sony+MS (and also because there's a depressing amount of people that can't control themselves and allowed it to get to this point) but a cashgrab is still a cashgrab.