So basically the Wii U syetem is as fragile as glass.? One typo in the coldboot's config.xml and you're fucked (from what I hear).
Not just the WiiU, any system is fragile when you mess with its internals (hardware and/or software) and you don't know what you're doing.
Having something like a root access to system configuration without knowing anything about how it works, is really stupid and an invitation to a brick.