So BOTW likely outsold TOTK this quarter barring some rounding error.

Not sure if that's a matter of it being too similar or the Switch simply having too much evergreen titles already for the casual player to spend $70 in one more.

Personally I was a day one BOTW buyer, loved it and played more than 200 hours, but somehow never had any interest in TOTK. From the reveal it never spoke to me, maybe as you say because it looked too similar. I had the same back on the N64 with OOT and MM though, played the first one to death and when the second came around was not interested. Not doubting TOTK is a great game, just not feeling like buying/trying it. Maybe there are a couple of millions like me.

Nintendo's financials took a big hit.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/nintendo-financials-show-the-post-zelda-comedown-is-real

Hardware down 46.3%, software is down 41.3%.
Net sales decrease of 46.5% and profits down a big 70.6%.

Part of that is due to films doing exceptionally well and now that buzz has subsided... Causing that cliff effect.

May just be a kick in the pants to get the Switch 2 announcements to start rolling out to create some buzz. Or not... Nintendo does what Nintendo does.

Check out this new deep dive into Echoes of Wisdom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DolGuwvAnfg 

Another deep dive into Echoes of Wisdom! New info on the "Still World" (essentially a dark world) and Zelda's swordfighter form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUdJF8gyO4A

I like that swordfighter form uses a resource (effectively being a spell) - wish that Echoes also use some sort of resource, so you couldn't just spam them (tough limited by number of concurrent ones).
Still bothered by the art style, but I'll live.

Now it feels like an easier buy.

Me too, the artstyle works for some stuff and really does not work at all for others, sadly the protagonists are among those and you look at them basically 100% of the time...

But the game does look interesting, will have to try get over it too.