why do  you hate it?

Phantom hourglass.
Why is SS so hated? I love that game!
Maybe it's the usual "Zelda X is bad until Zelda Y comes out" thing...

OK so in this case I voted MM...

As in need of a remake/repolished version... probably I liek it most as i played it, years after being out and it felt a bit dated...

Loved TP.... Loved SS... possibly the latest has begin my fav Zelda game... WW was Ok but the HD version made me fall in love with it!

Yeah, the Zelda Cycle is strong with the poll results. ;)

Honestly, that was only true for Wind Waker.  MM had a large cult following when it came out, and hadn't really changed.  A lot of fans didn't like TP when it came out, and if the theory was true, they should start liking it, but that hasn't been the case.  People gave WW a second chance after they didn't like TP, which is when this theory sorta came about.  I really don't know if people will change their minds about skyward sword.

A mechanic is not a gimmick.  To be a gimmick, the feature would have to be not used, or at least not used as promised.  The 3-day mechanic was fundamental to the game, and once you understand it, is incredible.

Definitely SS.  It's OK, but it had several weak points:

-Art style.  It was done to mask the weaknesses of the Wii late-gen, and it's not very impressive.  Blurring the backgrounds into paintings also breaks immersion.

-Graphics.  Not breath-taking.  Zelda should be a visual stunner.

-Motion controls.  It's fine for a sword as long as you're not using the dongle, but for throwing bombs or flapping a birds wings it's just tiresome.

-Reused features.  Characters, side quests and other aspects are pulled straight from other titles.  Especially Wind Waker.

-Hand holding.  Please let me try to solve a puzzle at least before telling me what to do.

-Dorky look of the birds.  They could have been so bad ass too...

-Ugly Zelda.

-Weak-ish story.  It had some real strong points, but also some overall weaknesses.  It could have been fleshed out more.  Like the giant bad-ass flying thing - that should have been terrorizing the whole game until you face it, rather than just coming out of no where.

Overall it just didn't seem ground-breaking like almost every other Zelda title.  OK, but not on par with the others.

Now I'm not going to get into a serious discussion here, but seeing so many people hate SS makes me very sad ;-; While it wasn't perfect (no game is), it was still my favorite Zelda game and a wonderful experience through and through.

My least favorite would be OoT, as everything that it did has been done much better in other games...

I think you miss the point that what OoT did hadn't been done before it by virtually any game.  Much of SS is recycled from the previous titles.  I'm not saying SS is a bad game.  It just didn't give me the same "wow" experience that other Zeldas did upon booting it up.  Much of this was due to it releasing on the SD Wii in 2011 when so many other titles were blowing it away graphically.  They also chose to do a prequel and a game with a limited world scope, all of this limited the games potential for grandeur.