[WW] Wind Waker was a huge disappointment. Why is this game so popular?

I've played the majority of the mainline Zelda games, but Wind Waker has evaded me for a long time. I stupidly didn't but it on GameCube as a kid, and I never bought a Wii U so I missed out on the remake. I've been waiting for a Switch port for years, so I was delighted to see it appear on Switch Online catalogue for GameCube on Switch 2.

I've just hit the credits now, and it's possibly one of my greatest ever gaming disapointments. I don't understand those who rank this as one of the best Zelda games. I'd even place the likes of Skyward Sword above it. I appreciate this game is over 20 years old now, but Ocarina of Time didn't feel like it had anywhere near as many problems. Here are my biggest issues:

1. Sailing is incredibly dull. I've spent so much time sailing through barren waters while being bored out of my mind. I've even got up to make a drink without pausing just to pass the time. I've heard people suggest it's fun exploring the island, but most are duplicates, and there's rarely a worthwhile prize to make the effort justified. It also takes far too long to get fast travel, and there's far too much backtracking

2. Using the Wind Waker is such a chore. I have to play the same tune every time I want to turn direction when sailing. It was also very annoying to keep playing the Wind Waker when required in specific dungeons. I don't remember the Ocarina ever being this annoying.

3. Magic! Why do I need to have magic just to use my glider?! I assume it's to prevent players from taking advantage of the wind and reaching locked locations, but it's so annoying having to make sure I have magic just to glide between platforms. I never really used my fire arrows, ice arrows or magic armour as a result, because having to manage the meter was just too tedious.

4. TriForce segments: has there ever been a more boring mission in Zelda? Having to track down treasure maps should have really been a side quest that rewarded you with rare items. But making it a requirement in the final act ensures that the story loses momentum. I was shocked that the game basically just has a boss fight after this too, rather than some meaty late game dungeons. I wish I just stopped playing at this point tbh.

5. The game assumes you to have strange logic at times. At one point, you need to get a treasure map by hitting targets high up on rocks. All the hints direct you to the seagulls, but I spent hours trying to figure out what to do. Using the Wind Waker control spell made most sense, but that doesn't work! I hate resorting to guides, but I admitted defeat, only to find out I was supposed to present a pear to a seagull. I've no idea how we're supposed to come to the conclusion the seagulls like to eat pears, nevermind that this allows Link to control them, but there we go. I would never have completed this game without a guide.

6. The boss fights were incredibly poor in this game. I can't think of a story counter I enjoyed. Once you figure out that you need to use the latest tool from the dungeon, it's very straightforward as doesn't require much skill. The final boss fight was arguably the worst of them all. What's worse, you have to repeat 4 of the old tedious boss fights just before Ganon.

7. I've heard that Wind Waker has a great story, but this wasn't my experience. I love the lore and setting of Hyrule being flooded, but there's very little story beyond this. Once Link saves his sister, there's not much to the story beyond finding out Zelda's identity and confronting Ganondorf. I assumed we would have a few more twists, but sadly not.

8. The aiming in this game is atrocious. Maybe this is just the norm for a game made in the early noughties, or maybe it's something to do with Switch 2 emulation. Either way, I had bad time trying to aim my bow. It's also very annoying that it defaults to first person perspective for aiming when an enemy moves out of range. It's also very difficult to target a specific enemy when up against a horde.

9. I've already touched upon this, but I'm still shocked by how little reward there is for exploration. The only rewards I ever really got were rupees or heart pieces. Sometimes you'd get a treasure map, only to locate the loot and find more rupees... This is particularly bad when there isn't much you can spend the ruppes on beyond more treasure maps or for TriForce Maps to be deciphered. I eventually stopped bothering to explore islands, as I just didn't think the rewards justified the work.

10. For a Zelda game, Iwas surprised that there were so few characters and story-driven side quests. It starts strongly as you meet the pirates, and visit islands such as Windfall, Dragon Roost and Forest Haven. However, I was really disappointed to find out there aren't really any more populated islands with new characters. I love meeting goofy characters in Zelda games, but the second half felt unusually solitary.

Now I know I'm in the minority for disliking this game, and I'm glad most people enjoyed it more than me. But I'm really curious, what did you specifically enjoy about Wind Waker, and where would you rank it in the Zelda series? Is there anything that you think this game does better than other entries? I will say that I loved the art style, Toon Link's silly expressions and there are a few good puzzles. And while I don't think the exploration works here, you can see how the curiosity-driven open world set the early foundations for Breath of the Wild. But beyond that, I struggle to think of many positives compared to other Zelda entries. Would love to hear the thoughts of other Zelda fans!