Here, I'm one of them and I'll try to explain.
When BotW came out it may have revolutionized the open world formula for many but for me it was open world nonetheless and the fatigue, after the even in 2017 bazillionth Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, et al, was strong. Not to mention they now took a beloved childhood IP with strong and fond emotions attached to and made it one of the most overused gameplay design.
When I started BotW I immediately loved the art style but the controls where complex for a Zelda game and required learning to do things intuitively. While the open world approach wasn't new at its core it was kind of overwhelming. Guidance is there but not as strong as in your typical open world game and definitely a lot less than in previous Zelda games. After reaching the first main quest checkpoints I was soon lost and wandered about, finding things that would break after a few times using and felt underwhelmed by exploration's rewards.
The story and a strong bond to characters and their stories and conflicts and locations weren't as strong as in previous Zeldas. Mainly because it could take 10 hours to proceed meaningful instead of cooking the 100th recipe or scaling the 100th mountain to find not what I was looking for.
Then add the mini dungeons that had no real connection to the world but teleported you somewhere that could have been anywhere. If you compared that to old Zelda dungeons which were distinctive to their locations you've find them in, this felt quickly like busy work. Mechanically clever but busy work nonetheless.
After 10 hours I put it away and never turned back. Too weak was the pace of the story, too far away was my mindset from what it needed to be to enjoy this game.
Now, after replaying older titles in the mean time I realised how the old formula overstayed its welcome. Having to find that ONE solution to a puzzle, having to do everything in a very specific order, being maybe hours in a location you don't find exciting but need to be in to solve the puzzle. The all-repeating mechanics like finding these little ghost/souls things as wolf Link in Twilight Princess's shadow world. Urgh. It's cool one time or maybe two times but not like what, seven times? And you can't solve it cleverly, creatively or any other way. It's okay when you have fun and like, but having no shortcuts if it's not fun is... annoying.
Then I started to think that maybe BotW idea was right but its execution not good enough for me or not fully understood. I don't know if the pace would have gotten better by playing BotW differently; the price you pay with open world, as it is not as sharply told as it is usually with linear experiences. But the narrative in previous Zelda games, with one outlyer, was always the strongest only with the first three dungeons. After that only rarely something happens in the narrative. After traveling to the future in OoT and reaching the forest temple, there's barely happening something and you go on to a multitude of dungeons and by the look of the world you couldn't tell if I'm at the second or sixth dungeon. It doesn't matter except for my items.
I learned to let that go and if I wanted that again I can always play the old titles or new Zelda clones. Now enter TotK.
After getting used to the weapon breaking mechanics and that I don't have to fight every enemy (in previous Zelda games there was very little to nothing to gain from it anyways), the loot became more and more rewarding because I needed it or I would have something just in case. For example I'm soon be running out of fire fruits because I often use them for survival mechanics (but I could also use flintstones, which is cool, so there's not one only way) but for combat, too. Now a chest or locations with them would feel really rewarding to me.
After I used all my bows for one giant enemy I was happy to find a new one the next enemy has dropped after beating him.
There's so much I could write about the mechanics, so many examples. The main gist is that I don't have to be crafting vehicles and other stuff all the time which I'm not a fan of (I don't care what people on YouTube will build with the ultra hand) but to have so many different solutions or maybe it's like in a traditional puzzle and you only have that one solution but you try out so many different things that it makes sense to try out because the world is reactive, interactive and allows for many things. It has set rules that are always applied (with one exception that you can't climb in mini dungeons). There's no scripted interactivity, something that only works in that instance, like climbing In Horizon where the devs want you to climb.
One last example: I wanted to reach that bird village to the North west. I already thought that climbing wouldn't be possible because of the ice that I'd needed to scale. I tried anyways, used a potions that was supposed to give me better purchase on wet and slippery surfaces after rain, and it didn't work, as I anticipated because it was raw ice and not just a wet rock. I reloaded a save game, listened again to that dialogue of that woman before the collapsed bridge and then found the way to cross said bridge and reach the village. It feels very cool.
Now to the story. The opening alone is much more interesting to me than in BotW. I'm a sucker for character interaction and that's why I rarely play games where there's no or too little interaction. After completing the prologue sky area and coming to the ground I've met Purah and that other little girl, I've met Impa and several other characters that were just fun to talk to or help getting something. It is lighthearted interaction and after roaming the wild for an hour, finding a hut with people to talk to, that even have a little quest, just feels great.
I'm naturally guided to the next encounter in a way I wasn't in BotW. Maybe because I've read the world wrong and now have a better understanding where designers want me to go. Maybe because TotK is better in that regard. I'm not sure.
Maybe I'd like BotW now more than before because I've set my expectations now differently and accordingly.
Anyways, regardless if this makes sense or not, I'm having a blast with TotK.
