That's cool that she fights Ganon as well, but the issue is that she becomes one of the most expressive and three dimensional characters as Tetra to stale bread damsel as Zelda.
I really don't get this. Zelda being captured can get kinda old but I didn't think that was a major issue here since it was made clear that Ganondorf had more power than both her and even Link by this point. If anything, Ganondorf was
holding back, and it wasn't until Link and Tetra actively worked together, both wielding powerful sacred weapons, that they finally stood a chance to defeat him.
Plus, while it's not always as apparent, Tetra's personality is still very much there as Zelda.
Doesn't help that she doesn't have any plot significance as Zelda either until the end if the game.
Now this I kinda agree with, I still think it's kinda lame that you're unable to talk to her and that she's unable to do anything but sit and wait while Link and co. are going after the temples and the Triforce fragments. She could've been a lot more relevant during the third of the game.
I feel like the whole point of Wind Waker Zelda was that Zelda wasn't the "real her".
She was Tetra, a swashbuckling pirate. And The King of Red Lions pressuring her to play the role of Princess Zelda and stay in hiding was ultimately what got her captured by Ganondorf.
Hence why she goes back to being Tetra in the end, and the King gives up on restoring old Hyrule.
This also ties into the game's message of moving forward towards the future instead of staying stuck in the past. In Wind Waker, Hyrule is simply a lost land of a bygone era, and it's made clear that trying to bring it back by the time the game's story takes place would do far more harm than good, something Ganondorf didn't care about and the King only realized near the very end.
By letting the old Hyrule remain part of the past, KoRLs was helping secure a new, brighter future for Link and Tetra, in addition to everyone else who lived above the Great Sea.