The funny part is, most of the major women aren't useless. Midna, Impa, the two from Breath, Sariah/Ruto all do fine while still needing Link to be the man who saves them. Its literally just Zelda who is, consistently unable to do a single useful thing without making it worse.

To a point that Zelda putting on a change of clothes makes her usefulness rise dramatically. Its like a running thing somewhere in the writing process that the dress/name is cursed to make her a damsel.