Just to make it clear to anyone, in case it wasn't before:
The memory you will be getting with the Wii U is flash memory. In other words, it's a Solid State Drive (SSD).
While 8GB may seem small compared to what the other consoles offer, the reason for it is that SSDs are currently way more expensive than regular Hard Disk Drives (HDD).
Getting a 32GB console for $50 more (in the Americas at least) should be a no-brainer. You get more memory to play with that is WAY faster than HDD, so generally you store things on there that you'll use often and want speed from. (probably save files and the like, so saves and loads will be much faster, etc)
You're not supposed to store everything on the stock hard drives, you're supposed to buy an external with rainbowtonnes of slow space and use that.
Anyone thinking that they can live with the 8GB bundle and not have to buy an additional hard drive for the life of the console is kidding themselves, unless they never download a game ever.
Please, please, please, please read the actual thread.