This is exactly correct. If Pretendo does not have the right to redistribute content, we simply cannot legally do it. One can argue that it is not morally wrong to do so, or that copyright laws are outdated and unfair, but this does not change the reality that we simply cannot legally redistribute this content.
Jon commented more on the topic of a Pretendo eShop in the Discord announcements channel on 2/15/2022:
I wanted to comment on Pretendo’s plans in regards to the eShop closure
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Secondly, NO, WE WILL NOT BE DISTRIBUTING GAMES OR OTHER APPS/TITLES THROUGH A PRETENDO ESHOP! While the infrastructure is there, we will NOT be supporting piracy of any kind on our platform or community. Piracy is NOT about price or profits, it’s about rights to distribute given content. We do not, and will not ever, have the rights to distribute any official WiiU or 3DS titles! As for homebrew or romehacks on the eShop, yes that is possible. However it is too much of a hassle to be worth it. Rom hacks would still require the base game to be distributed along with the modifications, since the eShop can only distribute full titles. We cannot distribute those base games. As for homebrew, there are much better solutions to that already. One of the biggest issues would be update management. Currently there is NO WAY to package a custom update title, any titles packaged as updated fail to install making update management nearly impossible. Also very little homebrew is even compatible with the eShop title format, and would need to be completely rewritten to support it. On top of that Aroma/Tiramisu provides the ability to have homebrew displayed as a channel. Given these reasons we decided to not go forward with any homebrew eShop either
TL;DR: Pretendo will most likely never use the eShop for anything related to downloading apps or games.