It’s definitely not as comfortable as something like the Steam Deck, but I played so much Switch while commuting on the train since it came out. It’s been a real joy to have. It’s also WAY smaller than any of the current-gen handhelds.
What do you mean by “cart games being downloaded in full to the system?”
I never owned a Switch, but I would say it was instrumental in the Deck's conception. If the popularity of the Switch had never happened, I wonder if Gabe would have taken the chance.
Nintendo cuts all kinds of corners and usually doesn't bother competing as a "performance" console, but people generally loved that thing when it first came out. I'm sure people will have gripes about Steam Deck v1 when v2+ comes out, too.
Further to this - it doesn’t download cart data to the Switch/SD card, but it does store save data, update data and DLC data on the Switch/SD card. So while BOTW may not download its whole 10Gb onto the Switch, you may end up with a few Gb in other data that’s locally stored.
Yeah, I’d almost say it’s an essential purchase. I buy a fair few online titles and I’ve found my 128Gb SD to be a bit lacking. I’m considering upgrading to a 256Gb or 512Gb but they’re still too expensive at high transfer rates.
If you have to choose between capacity and transfer rate for an SD card for a Switch, go for transfer. I had an old slow card and that was abhorrent for load times and stuttering on games that were stored there.