With Wind Waker, I didn't get any sort of satisfaction back from it to make up for the time I put into it, with a good bulk of the game spent sailing with nothing to do while doing it besides changing wind direction, unless you wanted to stop at every small island you passed, which again, all depends on if I'm in a certain mood or not. I can forgive something like a boring prologue as long as I'm promised an enjoyable experience on the other side. Or one very annoying section in an otherwise great game. Wind Waker has tedium stretched out for far too long in between events that it overshadows the parts of the game that actually are enjoyable to me. Heck, I can't even remember what most of the dungeons in Wind Waker looked like, whereas not touching TP for 2 years and coming back to it later, I still remembered how beautiful Snowpeak looked, and how confusing Lakebed Temple was. And you're right, it's not for everyone. Sure it looks nice, but for me personally, as much as it shames me to say it, I just don't find Wind Waker that enjoyable to play. I'm sure Hylian will come and call me insane, but I'm just going with my gut and how I feel.
