Its because they almost completely copied Breath of the Wild, then sanded off a lot of the worst elements (inventory management and durability) while adding some lighthearted humor and more interesting challenges.

So all it proves is that BotW only gets the near universal acclaim it does because its Zelda, and even that was just the novelty as TotK's failure proved.

Still is a shame because its a legitimately good game, with the only major hamper being the absurd load times due to the gay online component for MTXs no one wants.