Still I think you should let it go. Whether he/she knows its critically acclaimed or not is irrelevant. He/she (I'm saying this because I don't know the person) clearly doesn't care for the critical acclaim, whether its one of the highest acclaimed games ever or well-received. It's not gonna change his/her opinion. Trying to correct someone is gonna be irritating more than anything to the person, especially if its something like this. He/she doesn't like the game? Ok, then there's no problem in that, its his or her opinion.

I'm not sure how much I'd say that about Majora's Mask. I played Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the first time a few weeks before I got my copy of BOTW. My experience is OoT, MM, WW, ALBW, and BOTW. While BOTW is definitely the most significant change and evolution from Ocarina of Time, that's only for a few reasons. First of all, Majora's Mask wouldn't have been a good game to constantly imitate, it's very unique and has it's own personality. Second, it's on the same engine as a previous game and not on a new engine. Third, it has probably the best new features out of the Zelda games I've played, and it has two(arguably three) different main features that completely  change how you play.

I guess Majora's Mask isn't as innovative as BOTW, and it's not really a "new step" for the franchise. But it's such a big side step that it might as well be considered just as unique as BOTW, it's so different and so influential and honestly when you take all that into account it not being the new direction for the series is kind of null and void because making every Zelda like Majora's Mask doesn't make sense in the first place. Basically, it's almost an unfair comparison because BOTW's new step is a blank canvas to make endless sequels with. It's a basic foundation. Majora's Mask is a very specific work and it can't be replicated and shouldn't be. 

All I can really say then is that my experience differs from yours. I found Thunderblight to be one of many notable swings of the difficulty pendulum from an incredibly easy game to a fairly challenging one, with other swings including the first Lynel encounter, Eventide Island, and around the first hour or so of the game, and I would've preferred a more consistent experience from a difficulty standpoint that I think would've been more likely to come with a greater degree of structure.

That's his point though 

Much more like "hyrule is at war" than ocarina. Like for example a "dungeon" could be the goron village is captured and you have to get in and take out ganon's forces occupying it. Maybe another area is under siege and you have to go through the enemy encampment and take them out to free the area, and you could do that a multitude of different ways. Maybe another one there is a hyrulian force imprisoned and you have to free them and then fight your way out with them in a series of battles. Stuff like that. Where each dungeon has different objectives and you are free to figure out how you want to beat the dungeon, no one specific way presented. And shrines could be like taking out mini defense posts scattering around the world. Maybe each defense post shrine you free some soldiers. With hyrule castle being the final target but its defenses are such that you can't possibly hope to engage them until you've freed a bunch hyrulian forces and perhaps gained some key powers/items from the dungeons. Then once you have enough forces together you can decide to engage in open battle with ganon's forces outside hyrule castle, if you break through then you can get into the castle and work through that final level. Or maybe there are multiple ways to attack hyrule castle and you can come up with different strategies. But the whole world is open BotW style while still having a story line that makes it so you need to complete some dungeons and shrines first before you are strong enough to take on the final area. Something along those lines.

There is some rare stuff I have only found 2 of and I purposefully avoid combat because I don't want shit breaking.