I have to agree that it really is the most well-crafted area in a game, not just in terms of design but also gameplay and story-wise

the first Hyrule Castle related side quest comes relatively early in the game which says that the royal armor exists somewhere in the castle, that puts you the bright idea of going in there way too soon, and it's funny how shortly afterwards you get the side quest that asks for Zelda's glamorous food recipes but warns you that you are "risking you life" by going in there

indeed, you enter it in a state of panic, as it is full of insanely powerful, floating around patrols that kill you with one shot if you dare sneak in the castle early on in the game, but you can get very interesting stuff such as Link's Hylian Shield as well as powerful armor and weapons in return

The castles fine. But it didn't do much for me. I was hoping to actually fix all the destroyed stuff at the end of the game. So that when I'm playing post finish. The castle is accessible and cleaned up. It's stuck like this. So I'm like: "yay, I beat the game. Nothing changed? Ah well move on." I've stumbled into this memory by mistake. It was the only one I actually got lol. I intentionally ignored all the memories in the game. I didn't find finding out about Link's past to be interesting. Link didn't care that he lost his memory. So I didn't. I got this one because that was the easier route to avoid all the goo.

I was able through luck alone to skip about 97% of it by gliding to the exact right area. I think I fought one mini-boss and then bam, I was at Gannon's door step.

Then you realize it's not so great on the inside. The fact that it isn't a proper dungeon is a little underwhelming to begin with. I'll admit that the location is great for farming purposes, though.

LOL. Very early is Plateau and maybe everything in Kakariko as you are sent this way in the beginning. For me these two quests you mentioned came very late in the game, I already visited the Castle before.

Yeah, but 'very early in the game' is stretching it, if it is only is very early if yu take one of many paths (you could just as well ignore both objectives for the start).

I jumped off the back of the plateau in the direction of the desert, then towards the Hebra mountains. I didn't get to Kakariko until 80 hours in, the castle past the 100 hour mark. Why go to the end first. I was spared the rain until my stamina was maxed out at least. 

I floated into the dining room from a spire. The castle was a cakewalk at that point. Fun to explore yet nothing mindblowing. I came back for the boss at the 170 hour mark, ran straight through, only took the time to take out the silver Lynel(s). Open world has its disadvantages. Yet strugling through Gerudo and Hebra with 3 hearts was great.

I blazed through most of the game relatively quickly, completing all the divine beasts and finishing off a ton of shrines before kind of getting burnt out and going on a hiatus. Kinda taken a break from Switch in general and reverted back to my XB One and Steam the last couple months. I should really start the game up again soon though, as I've been wanting to check out Hyrule castle, especially after all the hype it's gotten. Feel like I'm well equipped enough already and got the Master Sword, just a matter of getting there.

Definitely agree. Through many hours of exploring Hyrule, in the back of my mind I wanted to explore the castle, but I didn't because I wanted to wait until I was near finishing the game, but moreso it's just... so hard to enter it! I humored the idea of entering the castle early, but then I was swiftly booted out by the varying types of guardians hanging around.

I did eventually get in for the purpose of doing a quest, but... yeah, man.... The castle really was an intense, exciting moment. I felt a sort of intense pressure being in there. The castle in ruins, dark goo all over the place, a sort of purple fog in the air, monsters everywhere hanging out with really strong weapons. It really felt I was at the end of a journey, which I felt I didn't belong there yet. And the castle is really dang big, with secrets all over the place. The further I went in, the more I just wanted to explore. It really did feel great.

I can't wait to eventually finish everything else up and go back into it.

I'm not sure. This is my first zelda game, and for a final I was expecting a grand journey throughout the castle. I think I was expecting some cinematic moments or ingame cutscenes leading to several boss battles as I progessed up the castle. Instead I progessed up the castle without much difficulty and the castle itself seemed empty or the same. Ganon himself was easy to fight, probably the easiest boss battle I fought.  I will go through the castle again and see what I missed, but still, was expecting some challenging encounters going though. My guess is this was intentional design, not to have one moment over shadow the whole game, the journey getting around is greater than any one location.