I will never for the life of me understand how people find sailing in WW so boring. It's just so fun. You don't have all that much to do before you can get the warp song. It's more fun than riding Epona or walking to get around, though TP Epona caught up a lot. But between the rupee courses that would pop up, dodging cannon balls from the pirate towers, and just jumping out of the water, it's still not old to me.
And while I'm on a roll, I don't really get why people have a problem with the Triforce shards quest. Up to that point in the game, I felt like I was neglecting half of the world while I just went from plot point to plot point. Now finally I was able to just go and explore every corner of the world. To me, it's not tedious at all. I just stock up on bait, and start in one corner of the map and work my way around the edges and everywhere else I need to go. I end up with all the shards and a complete map, and plus all the exploring helps find the money needed to pay Tingle.
I can sum this up in with one comparision.
World of Warcraft.
I don't think people are a big fan of traveling, is the thing. I mean, we would rather be killing hordes of minions and actually gaining something than spending that time traveling. And it's not that we don't take in the sights, we do. But in the end, having to keep track of what's going on during a battle is more engaging than holding down a button to move. Which is why we're so joyous when we can avoid just problems (faster mounts, warp songs, etc.).
And again, why is the Triforce charts a big problem? Like WoW, it's tedious. It's frustrating going back and forth between areas to pick up one thing. And you never know if you're in the right spot, or if something good will even come out of it.
Yet here we are, many of us fans of the game(s) (myself included for BOTH), and even with these downfalls, we still go back and play em.
(Sorry for the WoW comparisions, but having played it for 5+ hours, your brain is just thinking of it at all times)