Splitting the fanbase like this was a terrible move. Zelda would be a much more powerful franchise today if they hadn't make art style into an issue. Which it wasn't before Wind Waker.

I personally prefer the E3 2014 style and was hoping against the somewhat generic looking tech demo. Twilight Princess seemed awesome back in the day, but in retrospect I find it a bit unappealing. I suppose I just grew out of the phase where I thought a darker color palette meant a cooler, more mature game. Now I'm more interested in games that go for a more unique or aesthetically interesting artstyle.

I do wonder if the somewhat anime-ish artstyle is a bit of an attempt to try to win over the Japanese audience, since Zelda isn't as big there as it is in the west?

False.

You could change the camera angle and lighting on the fly to prove it was actually running in real time.

why does every tom, dick and harry need to start a thread about this? This has been discussed beyond death.

Yes, unfortunately someone at Nintendo thought at some point that it was a good idea to start turning western fantasy of 2D Zeldas into anime, more and more to the point that we can't really be sure of Link's gender anymore in that trailer. :/

Unlike their NES/SNES days, they seem to be almost completely out of touch with western market.

2011 demo are just...graphics. It will be compared to other (superiour) hd games on other consoles. 2014 is way more classy and stylish and beautiful like a painting...

Whiny gamers made Wind Waker's art-style into an issue..

Which Nintendo should have anticipated and avoided.

God forbid Nintendo tries something different for once with their franchises!

The survival of the company is more important than Aonuma's whims.