I'd entertain a 'new innovation' if someone could brainstorm some interesting ideas. All the non-controller ideas I've heard are VR / AR / adding more screens / reverse Wii U.
I wouldn't have been able to brainstorm motion controls, any of the variations of a second screen, cartless-multiplayer, streetpass, naked-eye 3D, rumble, shoulder buttons, the cross D-pad, thumbsticks.
Things I could have easily brainstormed - every element of the GameCube.
"There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did. The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them." - Shigeru Miyamoto, on the GameCube era.
Analysis is something that a loosely organized fan community is very good at.
Synthesis is something that we are, collectively, very poor at. Turning random bits and pieces of technology into a compelling experience requires vision, usually in cooperation between the hardware and software development.
I'll be honest, when the Switch's combination of features - cartridges, hybrid, detachable controllers - started to leak out, I could not see the forest for the trees. I couldn't put the package together into something I would want. Because what I want are
games, and what matters more than whether the abstract feature set is compelling, is whether or not Nintendo is creatively jazzed by the package they're putting together.
Dolby Atmos(tm) is a checklist feature for enthusiasts. A game with
no visuals, played entirely by 3D audio and haptics is a
wild-ass idea that has no substance.
Metroid Prime 5 with a "sonic visor," implemented by tiny speakers in the Joy-Cons? Well, that's a game.
The sort of innovation we're talking about when "gimmicks" come up is going to come around because, while the hardware team is doing their experiments, someone comes up with a cool game idea. And then another team comes up with a different game idea. And then around the third game idea someone says "this might be something." And then hardware figures out they can deliver it with X dollars a unit. Then Koizumi and Aonuma get in a room, and ask each other "can you see this in the next Mario" and the other one says "well, can you see it in the next Zelda" and they both say yes, and now it's in the hardware.
Or that doesn't happen and it isn't.
Whether or not we think it's a "gimmick" will depend on Nintendo's marketing. Remember three months of raging about how Nintendo should have cut HD Rumble from Joy-Cons and given us a sub $250 unit - totally misunderstanding both the technology, and Nintendo's intent with it? Now it's just the de-facto standard in haptics, nothing special at all.
Maybe a fun exercise, in fact: Let's stop talking about technology, and start talking about game experiences you want to have with Nintendo franchises that don't seem possible with a normal console. That includes things like "interactive Mario Kart theme park ride."
Accumulate enough of these wild things, maybe that will open up some ideas for technological avenues that can unify some of those experiences. Take my Metroid Example Above. I want that scary sensation of playing hide and seek in a completely black building at night, going by hearing and the movement of the air, and I want it with plasma cannons.