Never on 30 March 2015
This is a issue due to the way the language referring to genres have changed over the years.
I remember back during ALTTP's release where all the magazines referred to it as an Action RPG. At some point the idea of an RPG became more refined and people now expect leveling up or an equivalent mechanism to be central to the gameplay experience of an RPG. Zelda achieves that to some degree with items but many don't feel Zeldas items are enough to justify that label (Or most games these days would fit into the RPG genre).
There's little doubt, regardless what you choose to call them, that the old Zeldas were inspired by the RPG's of the time.
