If my considerably more you mean dowsing for about 100 years then sure.
Also the structure did start with ALttP yes, but doing somethign for the first time exempts it from pattern repetition criticism. Also bear in mind that the reason I also mentioned Ocarina is because that is the game that is always ranted and raved about, people don't call ALttP the quintessential Zelda experience, even though I would say it is.
Also what Skyward Sword also does is relentlessly hold your hand the entire way, and doesn't let you opt out of just skipping exceptionally long tutorial segments. Some things perhaps need some help to get into, but God man what happened to just having the player work the basics out themselves? Guess it's because we don't have instruction manuals anymore, I miss those, because it meant that by the time you fired up the game, you were expected to know the basics. Of course nobody read them but hey, that way it didn't spend 2 hours going "hey Link, this is how you run, now run around in circles five times to progress. Oh sorry Link you ran 4 times, try again!"
I sound like I really hate the game which I don't, I did enjoy it, but I really think they're rehashing emptily and pandering rather than taking risks and producing truly memorable experiences.
OoT: Memorable
MM: Memorable
WW: Memorable
TP: =/
SS: Meh