Really quick thought on Bethesda games being a 'mess'. I think that my experience has never really found this to be the case. Yes, there are ALWAYS bugs. I don't believe it's possible to create a game with the scope of Skyrim that doesn't have bugs. I suspect you could test the game for all eternity and still have problems. But saying the game is a 'buggy mess' implies that as you play all you do is see bugs everywhere. By and far this is not the case. Skyrim, and Bethesda games in general, are a prime example of the sum being greater than its parts. I've played the game for close to 30 hours and so far seen only one minor bug where a dragon got stuck. What I have seen, constantly, as I've played have been fantastic vistas, characters going about their lives, wildlife living in the snowy wastes, stars wheeling in the sky, snow blowing on the wind, etc. In other words, what I've mostly experienced with this game is the wonder and joy of being dropped into an amazingly well realized world.
However, when Nintendo allegedly spends 5 years creating a new Zelda title, that's 5 years of us building up excitement that Nintendo might finally do something substantially new with the series (especially when Nintendo tries to push that with interviews about how it's going to be so new and different).
There are TONS of things about Skyward Sword that are different from how things have operated since Ocarina of Time first came out.
To start with, I think people are really underselling the amount of time and energy that must have gone into making motion controls work on the scale of this game. They make it feel effortless and natural, but there's a reason we've yet to see any other game with motion controls as brilliant as those in Skyward Sword. Even with the basic building blocks in place from Resort, there are a lot of issues that game didn't have to deal with due to the very controlled enviroment that each of those minigames takes place in.
In terms of world design, Skyward Sword is a HUGE departure from the model laid out by OoT. The way each area is closed off from one another for example. And the way each of those areas is laid out in a maze-like configuration with lots of little puzzles to solve. Come on. It seems absurd to not give the developers credit for making this change. We can argue whether it was a good idea or bad one, but there can be no doubt in my mind that it was substantial.
Yes, the game still features dungeons and yes you gather items in those dungeons, but there are times where the lead up to the dungeon is incredibly unique and interesting. There's one section of the game in particular that strikes me as I think about this, but I don't want to spoil it. All I'll say is that it involves a boat and a time shift stone.
This game also features a number of quests that don't ask you to enter a dungeon at all. Instead the developers found a number of ways to set all of the action for these quests in each of the areas of the over world. There's one quest near the very end of the game where they radically alter the entire area using water. In another part of that same quest they turn the entire area into a sort of dungeon and restrict access to your items, forcing you to rethink how you'd normally approach the challenges.
There are also boss battles that don't take place in a dungeon.
I haven't even touched on other things I noticed, for example the way the developers really worked to create a connection with the characters in a way I can't recall from any past Zelda games. The story in general is very well done and suprisingly emotional at points.
These are significant changes that really change the feel of the game IMO. I suppose you could complain that the game still utilizes a structure that asks you to collect things at every turn. I'm not going to argue that there aren't plenty of things about this game that feel like Zelda, but at a certain point that should be the case. Otherwise why call it Zelda at all? I think, for me, the balance between new and old elements is just about perfect in Skyward Sword.