Tears of the Kingdom it has far more depth and expressive freedom than BOTW and is objectively better when you compare each aspect of both games plus fusion is  the greatest Zelda mechanic of all time, after it's SMO best 3D sandbox platformer then DKB which is a very expressive 3D platformer to the point it becomes therapeutic on top of being an alternative option to SMO.

ToTK is mechanically better than BOTW, but it's an interesting case of how limitations can sometimes be positive for game design.

BOTW appeal was mostly about exploration, finding things organically as you slowly uncovered Hyrule. You were limited by your stamina bar, sometimes you simply can't climb that mountain, or reach that island. How many times have you miscalculated your stamina, started paraglading and then you end somewhere totally different than where you were expecting just to discover something fun in the place you landed?

Sometimes you'd take a detour because you found something interesting and wanted to see what it was, and that would lead into an entirely new quest line. The game was fun because there was always something new and unexpected.

Of course, TOTK was never going to fully recreate that sense of wonder as it's largely the same map, after all. But even taking that into consideration, and even on a first playthrough, I still believe BOTW is more enjoyable. Hyrule's map was never designed with the idea that the player could literally fly and see the entire world and its points of interest from above. They made a decision to make traversal much easier (thanks to towers, dragons, sky islands, and Zonai devices), probably to remove the boredom of having to walk, run, or ride across Hyrule again on your own. The problem is that by giving you so many ways to quickly discover parts of Hyrule, the game removes layers of exploration and quickly turns into an open-world checklist game

If you play the game mainly for puzzles and sandbox interactivity, TOTK might be better. But if you enjoy the open-world aspects (which is my case), then BOTW is the superior game, no doubt

TotK, excellent game, but I found the depths just God awful, I hated having to transverse the depths. It couldn't be more tedious and boring.

ToTK is mechanically better than BOTW, but it's an interesting case of how limitations can sometimes be positive for game design.

BOTW appeal was mostly about exploration, finding things organically as you slowly uncovered Hyrule. You were limited by your stamina bar, sometimes you simply can't climb that mountain, or reach that island. How many times have you miscalculated your stamina, started paraglading and then you end somewhere totally different than where you were expecting just to discover something fun in the place you landed?

Sometimes you'd take a detour because you found something interesting and wanted to see what it was, and that would lead into an entirely new quest line. The game was fun because there was always something new and unexpected.

Of course, TOTK was never going to fully recreate that sense of wonder as it's largely the same map, after all. But even taking that into consideration, and even on a first playthrough, I still believe BOTW is more enjoyable. Hyrule's map was never designed with the idea that the player could literally fly and see the entire world and its points of interest from above. They made a decision to make traversal much easier (thanks to towers, dragons, sky islands, and Zonai devices), probably to remove the boredom of having to walk, run, or ride across Hyrule again on your own. The problem is that by giving you so many ways to quickly discover parts of Hyrule, the game removes layers of exploration and quickly turns into an open-world checklist game

If you play the game mainly for puzzles and sandbox interactivity, TOTK might be better. But if you enjoy the open-world aspects (which is my case), then BOTW is the superior game, no doubt