Well, apparently Link was supposed to grow up during the game, according to this concept art. I'm not 100% sure if it was supposed to be real-time, but it does seem like they wanted to approach it in a more natural way than in OoT's time skip.

Could you imagine if Link got a little bit older every time you finished a dungeon and by the end of the game you have Adult Link facing Ganondorf? That would've been so cool...

Wind Waker:

Most timeless art design, still looks good today (Something other Zeldas outside of Breath of the Wild can't say.)
Most fluid and impactful combat
One of the best soundtracks with possibly the single best song in Zelda (The Great sea)
Best writing/characters of any zelda game

OOT has more iconic imagery and LTTP has the most dungons with BOTW having the biggest world with the most content, but overall Wind Waker wins in the most categories without any significant downsides. BOTW is a close second (Even though I liked it more than Wind Waker).

As for the main series, my favorites go Link to the Past, Breath of the Wild, then Wind Waker, all three of them getting 9.9, 9.7, and 9.6 scores. OOT is a good game and super important to the history of gaming but it hasn't held up very well (Neither has Twilight Princess but I felt TP was better than OOT).

Point is, for overall presentation and quality, Wind Waker is arguably the best. It has the best graphics both for its time and will hold up, it has some of if not the best music in the franchise, it has the most heart and soul by a wide margin with the best facial expressions by far, easily the best story/characters of the franchise buoyed by arguably the best writing and the combat is arguably at its best in Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. Breath of the wild is also quite good but I felt the more refined combat of TP and WW were a better, more refined version of OOT's Z-targeting.

Basically, OOT was good but had far too many issues and despite being important is not timeless. TP is just OOT but more refined with prettier graphics. Wind Waker is as timeless as Link to the Past, as refined in combat as any game in the franchise, and has the fewest issues with conveyance. That is not a game in which you'll get lost, like you would with OOT or LTTP. it's the overall best game in the franchise.

You're allowed to like other games more but to say it's mediocre or 'just good' is plain wrong.

Considering I liked the series because of its staples, I personally wouldn't mind =P

Also, it's been a long while since we had a 3D Zelda with Young Link now that I think about it, would be nice to see him again.

I don't think they'd make such a specific thing a staple though, especially since every game had its own gimmick (I hate using this word, but oh well). In any case, BotW would likely still happen anyways and put the franchise back to square one, so no worries there.

Regardless of how I feel about that game, I just meant it in a "wouldn't matter if they did that since they'd change it sooner or later anyways" way.

I definitely lean more toward you than others in the thread—I'd rank The Wind Waker the sixth best Zelda—but thinking the title is mediocre or good is totally valid. It's all subjective after all.

I do agree the art direction is phenomenal (I was startled by the negative reaction in 2003 and remain surprised today), the music is among the series' best, the combat was the best at the time, and sailing/exploration was a joy, at least for me. The dungeons are unspectacular compared to the greatest of the franchise, but I feel like strong gameplay overrides that issue.

While I don't think WW has the best writing—I'd give that prize to Skyward Sword—I do think it has some of the best, most shocking narrative moments in the history of the series.

More post-game content would be nice, as you don't really get a reward for beating the game otherwise. I also wouldn't mind more mounts.

Everything else in the poll however, I'd much rather not have.

Definitely would have liked more narrative. And that castle at the end was a big let down. Hopefully one day i get to play the dlc on switch.

Nah The Wind Waker is the weakest 3D Zelda title.

Now, being a Zelda title does mean it's still better than most other things, it's still a good game. But, it just doesn't hold up against the others as far as the dungeons, bosses and the world is concerned. I do agree it's music is one of the best in the series overall including everything (I'd say Top 3 at least, together with Majora's Mask), and it graphical style, and the art direction that comes with it, is perfect for the tone the game want's to convey.

A subjective opinion on a game's quality cannot be "wrong".

It is your opinion that the game is great and looks beautiful.

It is my opinion that the game is bad and looks like diarrhea. 

Neither of us is right or wrong, we just have different subjective perceptions.