Who decided to add the weird angles to the sides? Not only do they make the system look like a cheap kiddie toy, they make it larger than it needs to be, and it's already not much smaller than a regular Wii.
This system has exactly two things going for it, from a customer standpoint:
1. It's unusual, so it may become popular with collectors (that is, if Nintendo doesn't make tons of them)
2. The non-motorized disk tray could be less susceptible to problems in the long run.
That's about it. It's barely smaller, it's not really cheaper considering you don't get games with it, and the features it cuts out weren't bothering anyone.