I can sort of understand the redesign of the Famicom/NES. What I can't understand is why they redesigned the Super Famicom. That just outright looked better than what the US ended up with.
Nintendo Power did an article about the Super Nintendo's design when it was new. It mentions that one of the most common service problems for the NES was spills, so a major design constraint for the Super Nintendo was that there couldn't be a flat spot on it big enough for someone to place a glass of soda or a bowl of cereal. I guess the original Super Famicom design was too flat for their liking.
As a retro/analog guy I was expecting to be in agreement with you, but after an image search I think I actually prefer the SNES. The SF looks like a tractor feed printer while the SNES probably looked fun and futuristic for its time.
