I completely disagree. Hyrule felt new, and although there had been a few years since calamity Gannon's rule, not enough of it had been rebuilt to lose that charm of the original world. I think they should have made more and larger sky islands, but you need to that everything in the world has to be integrated. It has to feel cohesive to the story, and although you can include secrets and side-quests, they all have to link to the story. I think you're basing this review off of a second play through, and that is where I think TOTK falls off. After playing it once, the surprise and awe isn't there in the story, because you already know it, and that leads to BOTW and TOTK feeling similar, purely because the world's are similar. But the story isn't, and that, above all else, is the most essential part of this that you're just missing. You can't capitalise on one part of that made the games great while ignoring everything else, not when it is all designed to work together to provide you with the awe and wonder.