Erwan

Well, it actually does acknowledge that the wheel is maybe not inferior but at least much harder to use. The golden wheel that you loose if you use too much another controller is pretty clear.

Compared to excite truck, it's really different. I found that Excite truck had pretty loose controls, and I ended up waggling the wii remote left right without being really sure that it was responding. In Mario Kart the control is very tight, and when you turn the wheel of a small angle you immediately see you kart responding.

You're right, CC+Nyko grip is what I've been using so far for Mario Kart and I love it. I have a GC controller but I prefer to use the CC.

The grip makes it as precise and ergonomic as a GC controller, with all the advantages of the CC (not as bulky, may be used to navigate in the Wii menu, has a home button, wireless without having to stuck a receptor to your Wii, better shoulder buttons...)

I still use the wheel when playing with friends (because it's more fun) but when I want performance (to unlock content in GP) I use the CC.

I'd say an other reason for handheld success in Japan is that (at least in Tokyo), houses are smaller and many households don't have a secondary TV to plug the game device. When the unique TV is shared with the rest of the family, a handheld is more convenient - even to play at home.

The Wii uses 10 Watt with Connect24 but only 1 Watt in standby mode without it.

Read the Ars Technica article that Chocolate Starfish posted, they argue that standby is a waste because most devices are using way more that they should, but also say that 1 Watt is totally acceptable.

In short: if you care about energy saving, disable Connect24. Unplug the Wii completely will not change your energy consumption significantly, because you already have a lot of devices (TV, VCR, alarm clock, microwave, refrigerator...) that are consuming much more than that (even more than the 10Watt of Connect24) in standby mode.