In skyrim the story (main missions) are linear.  It has to be done in sequence.  Not true with BotW.  There are 4 dungeons and hyrule castle.  The four dungeons are entirely optional and can be completed in any order.  Like I said the main story in BotW is not just open world, but non linear.  

There is so much wrong on the OP that it is hard to know if it is worse or not than the thread about scalpers.
Great graphics doesn't get in the way of the greatness of a game nor does realism. They can be quite well be elements to make the game even better.

This mimics my sentiments exactly.

It's a great game, but there are allot of technical flaws that just hold it back... Some of it is out of necessity as the game was designed for the WiiU hardware in mind.

The 4 dungeons are basically just stand-alone quests in their own right.
Many open world games have the same formula.

Mass Effect for example will allow you to complete missions to bring up loyalty of your crew in any order... But the game funnels you to a single point/quest at the end.

The advantage of Linear game design is that they can have really really good pacing and keep you motivated... Halo 1-2-3 did this extremely well.
That's not to say that open world is bad, I love it when it's done right.

I spent hundreds of hours in Morrowind back in the day, explored every inch, but I never once touched the main quest.
But I did complete Oblivion and Skyrim as the game did a better job of funneling me towards the main quest.

Give me amazing gameplay, features and options over visuals, although if you can also offer up polished visuals that would be even better. But only if the gameplay is their first.

I was thinking more of design flaws to be honest - when you have game that have certain (good) systems put in place that work only sometimes, I find it to be very flawed design. For all the talk of freedom of choice, take for example entrance to Gerudo Town - it's one of THE tropes of tabletop RPGs "you come to town gates, two guards are standing in front of it". That is setup that most parties thrive on, given the amount of possible solutions to the problem. Yet in BotW you have exactly one solution to it, and that's it - and that's part of the main quest.

Examples like that are one of many reasons I don't find it to be so brilliant and revolutionary game - I'm guessing most (if not all) people remembering something like Ultima VI from 1990 are truly wondering what are all these people talking about when it comes to BotW and innovative design. It's a solid game that hit just the right spot in the right time for (mostly) mainstream audience sick of Ubisoft's and similar openworld designs.