I'm pretty sure they arent alike. Zelda U is more like the link to the past sub series, but in 3D.

Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game of all time, so hooray I guess!

Oh WOW! I feel challenged, but I love collecting pieces of hearts (the process is fun, not the heart pieces in themselves) so I think I'll stick with Hero Mode as it is. Maybe I'll try a run where I don't pick hearts after defeating bosses, but I'll still hunt pieces of hearts.

As for the OPs Windwaker analogy, I personally see this game as mainly a cross between the last 2 Zelda games: A Link Between Worlds and Skyward Sword. Both had overworlds filled with puzzles and enemies and hardly much wide empty spaces. I'm pretty sure the wide empty spaces we've seen in Zelda U so far are much more packed than they're showing us. In SS, you'd be gathering bugs, tumble weeds, etc in what looked like a barren area, and in aLBW, you'd be hunting Mai Mais and slaying enemies. Maybe I'm wrong, we've seen too little to be able to tell. Oh, and as for having to mash the A button, we have no proof that it is so, and even if it is, it doesn't bother me. You have to perpetually hold down a button to give gas to your vehicle in most games with vehicles

Wind waker was a good game although I still haven't finished the game so I can't fairly judge it. My main complaint was that there was too much sailing. Zelda U will also probably have too much walking and horse riding.

When you are walking atleast you can do something. Like swing your sword or roll in wind waker you just have to sit there and wait

Yeah that's really annoying. At least the horse doesn't bump into the trees or rocks so you can do something else whilst waiting to get to your destination. :P 

For the GC Windwaker, I thought removing and raising the sail made the boat go faster because the boat seem to rush forward every time the sail was set. So instead of waiting to arrive to my destination, I kept mashing A and the sail item to entertain myself. Changing the wind was annoying though and Epona wouldn't require that. This makes me wonder if the sail cloth in Zelda U will also function without wind physics unlike WW's Deku Leaf.

"There are watch towers, just like in WW"

I see why you came to this conclusion, but it's hardly certain that they are "just like in Wind Waker." In Wind Waker they contained a few enemies and sometimes rewarded you with some rupees. Overall they felt very randomly placed. How do we know the towers in this Zelda aren't actually significant locations? Your suggestion is that they are there for 'pacing' (to give the player something to do while traveling from one place to another), but it's possible they are themselves the goal the player is traveling to.

"Enemies seem to only congrigate near these areas."

That is incorrect, we never even saw Link being near the tower in the footage last week. Wherever those enemies were, they sure weren't next to the tower. They were actually next to the statues which Miyamoto theorized marked a dungeon location.

I think it is safe to assume we are going to be doing Zelda stuff in this game. There will be towns with lots of unique NPCs and dungeons with much stronger and more plentiful enemies than the overworld. There will be items to collect which give you new abilities for use in traversal, exploration, and combat.

Zelda is a point-and-click adventure game. We are going to do a lot of pointing and clicking. It's great.

I get your point but you can't compare 1:1 both overworlds. Yes, design is similar as there will be big wasted parts of the overworld, but it will be part of an interconneted overworld similar to Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

Unlike these games, The Wind Waker overworld was splitted into many islands across the great sea (or the sky in skyward sword).

I also understand you are mentioning that because the auto epona doesn't run into threes, but as far as I know, I can control epona. This is just an option, and I can already control the king of the red lions. It will give players a similar feeling, but it won't boring as the sailing.

Windwaker is my favorite Zelda game on GC/Wii