Aonuma says that future Zeldas won't be like the earliest 3D Zeldas

 And that the "sandbox" style from BOTW and TOTK will be the norm (for now). Of course, the children who grew up with Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, or Twilight Princess are pissed about this. I get their anger, but I also get Aonuma. First let's get something out of the way:

One of my favorite Legend of Zelda games is one of the MOST LINEAR GAMES in the series. I am talking about Link's Awakening. With that said, I kinda agree with Aonuma. The Classic 3D format for zelda is VERY limiting...  You have to follow a very rigid path... it "kinda opens up at some point but then your sidekick will begin insisting on heading back to tbe main story. Then we have the dungeons which are fun, but they have the same gimmick. Run aroind getting keys and trasure chessts until you fins the dungeon's gimmick trasure, so you can progress to the boss room and beat the boss with the gimmick item. Then once the dungeon is done, you can forget about the item unless it's one of the following:

Bow

Hookshot

Pegasus/iron boots

Because most of the items are rarely used outside of dingeons unless a contrived puzzle requires it. Spinner, I'm thinking about you.

So much potential on this battle nd the item became useless after the dungeon... let's not talk Dominion Rod either.  

With that said, "sandbox" games CAN get stale if there is very little difference between them. I'm going to say that after Tears of the Kingdom, this Hyrule must be retired. The map needs to change in order to feel fresh. We need the return of gimmick items instead of the Sheikah Slate or Purah Pad. Fix the weapon durability issue. Fuse is a step forward, but it feels more like a band-aid than a solution. Maybe we could have two kinds of weapons: 

Standard and Master Weapons:

Standard are the ones you would normally see on the world like BOTW and TOTK.

Master Weapons would be "Key Items" that don't break, but they weaken and need to be Restored.

Like say, the Master Sword needs to spend some time in non-violence in order to recover. (This recovery should be able to be sped up by a trip to the Sacred Grove or wherever tou pull off the sword.) The mirror shield loses its luster after being used in Shield surfing or Link falling down surfaces while having it on his back. This can be remedied by using a magic consumable that restores the Mirror Shield's luster.

Boss variety and dungeons are sorely needed... but let's face it: what we really need is is that the next Zelda games are entertaining and have good to great storytelling and amazing gameplay... hopefully, they won't burn out the "sandbox" aspect, because it'll be hard to return to linear after sandbox.