I agree with your summation here. While cuteness is a cool factor, it doesn't make gaming easy, fun, or enjoyable beyond the shock factor of size. This is a problem I had with the GBA SP back in the day - I prefer the PSP/Game gear/Lynx 'controls on either side of the screen' layout style myself.

Of the two you covered, the BitBoy clearly wins - I wonder if they will ever do a GBA style design for people that prefer that layout?