Ironically, they were probably afraid of the very explicit litigiousness of Nintendo.
Two solutions:
- different names ( like Sony )
- different positions ( like Microsoft )
Third solution:
- get sued by Nintendo
Maybe they did some early testing and got feedback that people liked the button names being the same as Nintendo. Or maybe they read criticism about Sony using different names.
Maybe they were originally the same and then the legal dept depended a swap too late to change the actual names.
Maybe none of this stuff.
As you can see, I find the legal system to be a bigger threat and generally more frustrating than Microsoft.
Not wanting to elect dictators is anti-democracy!
Basically the same logic