Of course the difference is in the software. It's not going to happen anyway, even for VC games imo, but if it were possible having you playing Call of Duty on your GamePad, having your missus watching crappy reality telly on the HDTV and a kid playing NSMB U is more attractive than playing games on a smartphone or tablet. And even if you think that the quality of games on smartphones and tablets is good enough you've got to take into account the better control options that the GamePad gives you. Proper sticks and buttons. 
Fine, if you don't like the control methods on a tablet, pretend it's a ds or vita instead.
I restate - two people playing two different games on two different machines (one on the tv and one on a handheld) is nothing to shout about and is something we can all do already - and can all do better than you could with the U if that rumour were to come to fruition.
You seem to be under the misapprehension that if this did happen the U doing all the calculations for both machines (console and handheld) would be better than the two devices doing their own. It wouldn't be. It'd just be restrictive. The U is already underpowered - it can't afford to forgo part of it's processing power like that.
And like I've said, I'm going on every hands-on report I've read regarding the IQ of the display. People using the things have said there's very little drop in IQ when switching from a HDTV display and the subscreen and that it's very difficult to spot individual pixels.
You're arguing with the laws of physics, Harv. The image quality of something with less pixels can
not possibly be anywhere near as good as something with six times as many pixels, when both are at normal viewing distances.
Given the hands-on reports you shouldn't have any problem playing the likes of Call of Duty and spotting enemies at long distance.
You'll have a vague idea of where they are just after they've shot you.
You're not great with the laws of physics, are you.
If you read on one of your fanboy forums that owners of a wii u will be able to light candles underwater you'd come on here and spout that rubbish, wouldn't you, instead of actually engaging braincells...
Feel free to find a comment from anybody complaining about the display IQ and prove me wrong, but I personally haven't seen anything but positive and glowing reports.
(Feel free to find me a report that says the U won't enable it's owner to light candles underwater.)
We've been here before. Just because lots of people say the picture quality is fairly impressive doesn't mean they think it looks like high def. Anyone who does think it looks like HD needs to get their eyes checked.
It's
impossible to retain image quality when you lose over 80% of your pixels. Seriously, Harv - I can't believe you're arguing that the image quality would be comparable. It's physically impossible!
To which you're now tempted to reply with something brainless along the lines of "I don't know how they did it, but they did - everyone says the picture quality's fantastic".
Seriously - I don't care how clever you think those clever chaps at Nintendo are - they can't defy the laws of physics.
And I remember one of you complaining that you were having problems with your missus watching crap on the telly a while back and either interrupting your gaming or relegating your gaming to a different room. Won't be a problem with the U. 
Once again - if you switch your gaming from the big telly to a handheld you're going to lose a lot of detail.
Better the wife sods off to watch Corrie on the gamepad while the bloke plays his games on the high def tv.
They'll be able to do that, right?...
