I'm really glad they included online. It's about time, Nintendo lags behind trends so much, it's amazing whenever they adopt a new technology.
That said, I think they may have more to do with the online functionality, but even if it is bare bones, it seems better than nothing. I didn't expect it to be included at all.
More generally though, this bodes well for new Wii games, because it means the suits have OK'd letting a major franchise poised to fight the major XBox 360 and PS3 releases have online. Hopefully by next year, SSBB will start a trend of Nintendo titles having online.