You are you 180 degrees wrong. Prior generation Atom did now sell because it was too wimpy and consumed too much energy. Current generation Atoms sell in large volumes because of a roughly doubling of CPU performance and efficiency with significantly enhanced graphics. Rather than a race to the bottom, with Silvermont, Atom is moving towards towards mainstream domination. While we lack validated silicon, it's obvious Braswell will find broad mainstream acceptance that increases Atom's desktop and laptop market share. At 22nm, market acceptance of BYT-D and BYT-M is strong. At 14nm, Braswell moves significantly up market with no increase in TDP.
I reside in the Philippines where a KW of electricity costs about US $ 0.34. That means in 24/7 mode, every watt costs $2.97 per year. My computer is on 24/7 to host a firewall with NAT, host a P2P daemon, provide remote access to my home network and run an XFCE desktop with browser and media consumption applications. I could run a big core but it would cost more than my Atom J1800. If big core requires 10-15 watts more electricity in my use pattern, that's an additional $30-45/year to operate.
I can easily afford that, but I do not understand what meaningful benefit a big core would provide. My browsing speed is capped by an inferior 3rd world ISP. I have no issues consuming my media and 1080P to my large screen plasma TV works great. After months of use, I see exactly one issue where the J1800 is weak. Playing AisleRiot Solitaire, when I drag a stack of cards, the stack distorts (like a transporter beam malfunction) upon any touch to the edge of the screen . It does not interfere with game play, but my I3 NUC handles this perfectly. This may be a Linux driver issue. For my use case a J1800 (with SSD) is in no way a hardship. A big core does nothing for me except increase costs.
By most standards, I am not a gamer. If a well regarded discrete graphics device floats your boat, go for it. The oft quoted Steam statistics suggests high end gamers are the affluent minority. The idea that high end gaming standards dominate mainstream preferences is just wacky. Sales data suggests consumers understand this even if the use case distinction befuddles some "enthusiasts". Atom, Intel's cheapest desktop line, is not targeted at high end gamers who represent the most demanding consumer desktop segment. However, the leaked slides clearly indicate Braswell NUC will target "light mainstream gaming". From a SoC perspective, the bottom of the market is rapidly moving upmarket. This rising tide may not lift all boats.