As I'm sure you've already heard elsewhere (I really, really need to update this blog more often...), Nintendo plans to shutter its online stores for the 3DS and Wii U at the end of March 2023. The company is especially eager to retire the Wii U... games for the unpopular hybrid console can no longer be purchased from a computer, forcing Wii U owners to dig up their long dormant systems and make their last minute purchases on the Wii U eShop. (A word of warning from someone who just did this: the Wii U interface is slower than you remember. Much, much slower.)
However, it will become increasingly difficult to buy games for either the Wii U or 3DS in the months leading up to their retirements. You won't be able to use credit cards to pick up anything you're missing by the end of May, and by August, you won't be able to buy eShop credit for the two systems at all, unless they're on the same account as your Switch.
Does this suck? Yes, quite. Will Nintendo cave under customer pressure and reverse their decision? Not likely, no. When they said they were closing Miiverse at precisely 10:00PM on November 7th of 2017, it's exactly what they did, in spite of the outcry from members of the short-lived social network. Will there be any permanent way to own NES and Super NES games on the Switch after Nintendo drops the guillotine on the 3DS and Wii U? Nope, and that's probably the way Nintendo wants to keep it.
The Nintendo Online subscription service ensures that Nintendo has total control of where, when, and how its customers play their games. Players can't pirate what's safely tucked away in the cloud, and when Nintendo is ready to put the Switch into retirement, they can deny access to legacy content with the tap of a key, forcing you to upgrade to their next console to regain it. Welcome to a brave new future of planned obsolescence and forfeited ownership! It's gonna suck ass.
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