Not to argue with your point because it is certainly valid, but the N64 had that expansion module for DK 64 and a few other games, yet managed to survive that.
The expansion module was just more RAM, not a whole new system. I think the 32x is more comparable to the N64DD, which failed and never actually made it to the US.
Most of the games with epak support used it to increase quality and / or framerate, the game worked fine without. It was also relatively cheap ($50).