I don't think you actually know the full extent of what hand-holding is. A general definition of hand-holding is a feature (or lack thereof) that decreases the difficulty of a game in a general sense. This can be constant tutorials throughout a game, "pushes" in the "right direction" (or hints as you mentioned), easy access to quest/important items, nerfed enemies/super strong player character, no penalties for deaths/infinite lives, etc. Not only does giving you all the extras in the beginning of the game detract from the overall difficulty, it also shortens the dungeons which were some of the funner parts of Zelda.
While this whole system lets you do whatever you want in the overworld which is nice, you're left without a feeling of achievement a majority of the time, which is like...sort of the whole point of playing video games, to achieve something. Which is what happened to me, I had no motivation to continue the game because I never
really achieved anything on my own, it was just given to me in some silly way.
I somewhat agree with Ryu, it was a different direction which is good for same-y series like Zelda, but it was too poorly executed to make the game truly fun. Perhaps something that would've helped would be a system where you can only rent a couple items at a time and you unlock more "slots" for items or something while exploring the dungeons.
But then again I guess that's a matter of preference than anything, so meh.
