It's crazy to me that Wind Wakers artstyle was criticized. It looks so awesome! I played it to death as a kid although I never finished it. This is THE game I hope they one day release for the Nintendo Switch. They can put it up for $1000 if they want to, I'll still but it.
The exploration is a little tedious as you mention. I didn't really mind as a kid though. I had all the time in the world and no stress of adult like looming over me. Nothing was a problem.
I believe that this artstyle was criticized because the game went out in an era where everybody wanted more and more realistic visuals, the world was really hyped about the new generation of consoles (the Playstation 2, the Dreamcast, I think the original Xbox was around that time too) and they were expecting Ocarina of Time 2.0.
Btw I think that the Nintendo Wii U version of the game was released on the Nintendo Switch, but I'm not sure.