I agree that some people do have entitlement issues especially regarding games, but I don't agree with attaching the word 'gamers' to the argument. Gamers are just the group of people who make playing games their hobby and to give that group certain properties would be stereotyping.
It's interesting how Apple was mentioned in regard to giving to stuff back for lowering prices, the fact is they HAVE done this. I can't remember which model it was exactly but I do recall that when they launched the 3G (I think) and lowered the price of original by $100, anyone who had bought the original in the past 3months was given $100 refund. Now of course they have established their yearly release cycle so you know when the new phone will hit.
As for Nintendo the games they are offering are 20yr old NES/SNES games which aren't even fully customised for the 3DS, games which I would bet most people will play for maybe 5mins. I would argue however that Nintendo's decision to give out these games and apologize isn't to 'appease whiny gamers', it's to ensure people that this is something out of the ordinary and is not typical behaviour. The reason they would want to do that is so they don't have a situation where people are hesitant to buy new Nintendo products because there might be a massive price cut 4-5months later. You can even consider that many people bought a 3DS based on the promise of good games on the horizon rather than games currently available so the fact that the device you bought for those future games is getting a 30% price cut before they even come out would be a legitimate cause for unhappiness.
I definitely agree with the whole self-righteous pirate thing as I find it funny and completely ridiculous how someone can use some design decision a game has taken as an excuse to pirate the thing. If it's not worth playing then it's not worth pirating and if it's worth pirating then it's worth paying.
The DRM, LAN and Dedicated server support issues I felt were really bad example because I feel those are legitimate reasons to complain and/or to stop supporting that product because of it. I stopped playing COD since MW2 refused to include dedicated server support, I waited a year to buy Assassin's Creed 2 because of it's DRM and I completely skipped over The Settlers 7 (even though the game interested me) because it was made virtually unplayable in SA because of DRM.
Once again I'll just say I don't like lumping people into one label of Gamers but I will say that I think many of these issues seem far bigger than what they actually are simply because you often come across the vocal minority simply because they are the ones making the most noise. As you pointed out MW2 still sold an insane amount regardless of the scream for boycott so that's just evidence that most gamers aren't really that phased.
