Is Miyamoto's take on new IP's right?

[Wyrdness]

KylieDog said:

When everything is presented to you openly you it isn't exploring, and a star being on a ledge in a corner doesn't need 'exploring' to find.  Besides, Galaxy does that too on many levels, same as 64 has those levels barely made of anything like Galaxy.

The pretty much the same game (as in sequel).

This tells us that you haven't really played SM64 if either of these games, the levels in SM64 require exploration to not only locate the star but also solve puzzles, Jolly Roger Bay an early level is an example of this, these aren't stars being openly presented to you either, these are levels where you'd have to explore the level to find a location then often solve a puzzle based on the hint given. Galaxy requires you to work the levels design to get to the star, this is a completely different approach in Galaxy you can't get stars out of order in a level either. This isn't even an opinion it's how both games play and going by your description you haven't really played either past the first level.