I always thought that people hated Wind Waker because of the graphics, but then again, the sailing is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, the triforce piece hunt can turn off many, yadda yadda yadda...
I don't know you, but I really didn't have any legitimate complaints in it. Of course, the sailing is something I found annoying from time to time, but in the end, I don't think Wind Waker would've been the same without it. It's because of it, in fact, that the overworld always felt like the largest one in a 3-D Zelda game to me. Seriously, I don't think any of the currently released games have the same feeling of size as the great sea. Having to sail for god-knows-how-long was probably a turn off to many (me included), but I think it's the kind flaw that is just necessary to the game's..."personality", for lack of a better word. The triforce piece hunt kinda had a part in that for me, too. It was an interesting reason to go out there and get to know the overworld, in my opinion.
But then again, I have to admit that I kind of favorite Wind Waker in a way. I always liked the way the story was told, how Link got far more expressive than before, and that Nintendo clearly didn't mind a certain extent of goofiness. I'm not really fond of stories that takes themselves in a dead-bone serious kind of way, so maybe that's a reason I didn't mind the cartoonish graphics. XD Well, maybe that or the fact that I was like 9 years old when I first played it.