That's what I feared (it having to always be on). Is there no way (maybe a hack?) to unsync the Tablet Gamepad so there isn't one paired with the console?Basically nothing you can do about the Gamepad. It will be on during the game. Mine also just sits in the cradle most of the time.
The screens will be on for *every* Wii U though. Since screen burnout hasn't been a problem yet (even for launch consoles) it must be very reliable/durable.
It's so bad that I couldn't even use the Pro Controller to link my nintendo account; as soon as I started it told me to do that step using the GamePad.
For those that use it, it's neat, I just want to play though some Mario and Zelda games using the pro controller and it bugs me that it's running the whole time.
Oh well.