I think the author's complaint has merit, but I don't think tying this complaint to wanting Zelda to be "saved" makes sense.
The issue is genre. To take an extreme example, I might like the brutal open-world genre a la Dark Souls and complain that the Forza games are all garbage because they aren't that. Most would recognize this complaint as silly, because if I want a brutal open world with no hits I should find a game that purports to contain that, not go bashing racing games because I don't like that genre as much.
What the author's doing to Zelda obviously isn't as extreme, and it is a bit more grounded (Zelda games did used to be more like what the author wanted). But it's the same type of argument: back when there were no open world games, the author played one called Zelda and really liked it. Since then (starting with the third), almost /every single title in the series/ has been an extremely dungeon-focused, puzzle-focused game. The overworld has always been a big part, and there have always been some secrets, but the defining aspect of the genre has become these dungeons and puzzles.
This isn't to say the complaints are invalid; there's nothing wrong with wanting a game that is more hidden, less hand-holding, more focused on the action and less on the gimmicks that let you solve a puzzle. But that's not asking for a better version of Zelda, that's asking for a different genre altogether. Focus on asking for new titles in that genre, and leave other genres in peace.
The issue is genre. To take an extreme example, I might like the brutal open-world genre a la Dark Souls and complain that the Forza games are all garbage because they aren't that. Most would recognize this complaint as silly, because if I want a brutal open world with no hits I should find a game that purports to contain that, not go bashing racing games because I don't like that genre as much.
What the author's doing to Zelda obviously isn't as extreme, and it is a bit more grounded (Zelda games did used to be more like what the author wanted). But it's the same type of argument: back when there were no open world games, the author played one called Zelda and really liked it. Since then (starting with the third), almost /every single title in the series/ has been an extremely dungeon-focused, puzzle-focused game. The overworld has always been a big part, and there have always been some secrets, but the defining aspect of the genre has become these dungeons and puzzles.
This isn't to say the complaints are invalid; there's nothing wrong with wanting a game that is more hidden, less hand-holding, more focused on the action and less on the gimmicks that let you solve a puzzle. But that's not asking for a better version of Zelda, that's asking for a different genre altogether. Focus on asking for new titles in that genre, and leave other genres in peace.