Gaming

I know our house got it bc we wanted to play Animal Crossing. A lot of homes get a Switch 1 because it makes the most sense for kids, especially after the durable Switch Lite came out. It's just cheaper and easier-to-use than competing devices. The only real competition is phones and iPads, and smart parents know that games on those devices can be predatory in a way that Switch games usually aren't. I know it's not exactly as black-and-white as that, but I think a lot of parents see it that way.

Do people just seriously not give a fuck and buy this ancient thing because of the exclusive games?

This is pretty much true of all consoles. People play games, not consoles, and they'll use whatever hardware they need to.

I mean, I get it, nintendo are royal pieces of shit for locking all their games down inside of a captive platform. But that's a great reason not to buy this shit.

Again, universally true of consoles, though unlike Xbox where games have become more and more crossplatform, or PS where some games are getting licensed for PC ports, Nintendo's head is so far up its own ass that it won't even let you record gameplay without worrying about a DMCA.

Fuck Nintendo, but for the same reason as Oracle: because they spend more on lawyers than the people who actually do the work creating something. Also, they could use some modern hardware for a change instead of always being multiple generations behind.