That's how most Zelda games are.......basically. It is a pure explore and grind RPG, like how Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy games are. The fact that this Zelda game is more open-world than its previous predecessors, it FURTHER EXPANDS UPON the exploration stuff.
Most people that grew up on Zelda games, they like that type of exploration ****. For others, it can be pretty god damn boring.
It is not like an open-world Mario game where exploration leads to another objective/reward (which is what Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 & 2, and now Odyssey are), although this Zelda game did have some moments where it did that.
It is a big reason why I never got into Zelda games in the first place because although the overall story telling is one of the best in video games, there is some boring **** you have to go through to get to the those crucial points of the game's plot.