You seem to be projecting your desire for what the Wii U should have been for what it meant to be. Nintendo Land was the game designed around the idea of showing what the Wii U is, and that game made a lot of varied use of the gamepad that the Switch does not provide. Just because there weren't a ton of other games to do the same does not mean that it was never the intention of the console; it just means that many developers didn't care for/couldn't think of how to use the feature, and that other games just didn't have a need to make use of its features. And there are many more features that make the Wii U what it is that are unrelated to what the Switch is. The motion controls were integrated in a fashion to allow for using the gamepad as a dynamic window into the virtual world. Touchscreen capabilities (of course rumors state the Switch has touchscreen, but I have my doubts as that feature wouldn't work when docked) open up for different kinds of interaction, as well, allowing games like Kirby and the Rainbow Curse to work. So far, the only similarity I see between the Switch and the Wii U is that some games can be played without a TV.