Personally since I started gaming with Pokémon I prefer mute playable characters to those who talk, if they can talk then they'll most likely put in your mouth words that aren't yours or that differ from your idea, plus it's safer to do so because there WILL BE people disliking the voice since different people have different tastes...

Yeah NPC's should talk though just to help bring alive Hyrule, add a bit off personality.

He would make a perfect hole to cook my sausage in! 

Doesnt bother me in the slightest.

Zelda has its own working formula. Having Link speak will undoubtly lead to many people beeing disappointed with how he sounds or speaks.

To me, it makes no difference because Zelda games have so little story. Its not really necessary. It's more annoying in a game like Xenovlade X for example, where a fleshed out main character enriches the story.

Link being silent besides grunts I can live with but if you are going for cinematics that actually feature dialogue from other characters they better start shelling out the cash to voice those ones. Otherwise just go without the cinemas, trying to have both comes off as archaic and a bit cheap these days.

"I just wonder what ganons up to!"

never thought of it like that.

The day Link finally gets a voice is the day my mind will explode.

I hope he doesn't. Doesn't need it, either.

Liking the pun in the thread title by the way. Good stuff.