I'm surprised it took them this long. The shop channel did have a couple neat things but was otherwise largely forgettable, so it probably won't be missed much.
When the Wii first came out though, I remember really liking Virtual Console. Nowadays I couldn't care less about VC on any console, I find it more convenient to play them on my laptop anyway. But back then, emulating N64 games on a PC didn't work as well as it does now, and I didn't have a good USB gamepad, so Virtual Console was the best way for me to play anything that used analog controls.
That animation was pretty cool, but man was it useless. It was impossible to tell exactly where your download was at or even have anything more than a vague idea of how long it would take.
Also, hey Brian117

You should drop in to IRC more often.