And tennis. And golf. And baseball. And many others where people either don't have or don't let their preconceptions steer their preferences.
Motion controls never caught on because game studios aren't interested in making games locked to one console, and motion controls are far less standardized.
Until you realize your standing-up-arm-waving strategy is being destroyed by the person sitting on the couch making little wrist flicks, who may as well be pushing buttons for all the motion they're making. And that person isn't experiencing severe RSI, the likes of which doesn't happen playing those sports for real, 5 minutes into the match.
I mean, I am not going to complain if I am sitting there taking my time diligently trying to aim my controller and then my 7 year old brother comes running around the corner with his machine gun just spamming AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and gets an ace. It's all part of the fun. If you aren't having fun playing a video game, stop playing.
The mode of play that is more fun hurts and loses to a mode that is basically button pressing (mostly because when you're making the "real" motions it can't figure out what you're trying to do half the time, and does something else instead, while wrist-flicks are picked up reliably). The failure is (at least their implementation of) motion controls.
Was great for rail shooters, though. Don't know why they didn't make an effort to get a port of every rail shooter ever made on the Wii. Only console ever where they'd be (the only?) first-class citizens.
So, the first generation of motion control games that use that control scheme had some problems? Color me surprised.
In truth, you want to be able to play from the couch. You also want to be able to play in a more immersive style. Being able to detect one or the other and having a slider to allow more lenient play would be ideal. At the other end of the spectrum, I imagine requiring a more true translation to the actions on the screen would help prevent any RSI, as it would naturally require a wider range of actions.
It's easy to fall back on what we know because the new thing doesn't always work right and has some pains in the initial implementation. That doesn't mean we discount it entirely.
Motion controls never caught on because game studios aren't interested in making games locked to one console, and motion controls are far less standardized.