I enjoyed it too. It's not the best but it's definitely not the worst either.
That said, the thing that kind of 'breaks' the game is indeed the lack of exploration. It's fine when you first get to a location, but once you've done the first quest there, it's done.
Also, the fact that the world was separated into three sections was a bad idea. They should've done something to link 'em all together like in the other games. It was supposed to make the world seem larger in the player's experience, because you have to fly to other regions, but really in reality it works the other way around.
Lastly, the (sword) controls were not bad. They were the best thing about this game! It adds like two million extra layers of depth compared to A-button smashing.
The 'hate' is probably temporary. Twilight Princess's hate cooled down a great bit since Skyward Sword came out. I guess it's the popular thing to hate on the latest title, and praise the others before it. So I guess when the WiiU Zelda comes out, people will say it sucks and Skyward Sword will be regarded as the second coming. This is called the Zelda-cycle 
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