So, after a month-long wait and pointless anxiety, I actually managed to snag some component cables from Nintendo World Store. And once I plugged it into my lovely 26" Samsung CRT HDTV, I was initially disappointed. . .Zelda just looked slightly sharper and more jaggy, but that's it.
But after playing for a while, and switching between Monkey Ball, Zelda, and Wii Sports, I realized that the picture quality made a difference. Text was sharper and more visible. Blurriness--despite the awful textures in Zelda--was vastly reduced. In short, component cables are godly.
So if anyone has an HDTV and hasn't bought component cables yet, I highly suggest that you do so. It's soooooo worth it.