Well this is kind of a questionable analysis. Does exploration have to be optional in order to not be padding? If you're naturally exploring in the game, which I'd argue is the "right way" to play a Zelda game, and in the process you happen to accomplish goals that turn out to be required, I'd call that a strength of the game design, not a weakness. Rather than being forced into performing tasks to progress, you performed those tasks by your own volition, because the game world compelled you to engage with them. It gives the impression that you arrived at a meaningful place due to your own intellect and intuition, not because the designers forced you down a specific path.
It falls apart if you straight-line from dungeon to dungeon and run up against a wall of little quests at the end, but since you didn't do that, it's curious to me that you felt that the mere knowledge of required actions encompassed by your natural exploration was a negative.
if i am exploring, i like to think it's because of my own choice, and not because of destiny. revealing that what i had done was due to someone else's design removes that feeling of accomplishment. i don't feel this is a problem with the dungeon -> pre-dungeon -> dungeon -> pre-dungeon format because i
know that i'm on a set path. to compare it with telltale's the walking dead again, there's another game that gives the illusion of choice, and it turns out it doesn't matter what you do. the story really bugs me for that reason (it's lazy game design). but a linear story like what you see in the last of us? i'm totally okay with it because it's not trying to be something other than what it is.
that's why i felt the exploration element was stronger in twilight princess. i knew what i was doing wasn't planned for me to do by nintendo. i knew i was going off the beaten path and just checking things out because hey why not. with tww, i'm not so sure.
but to get back to the original point i had, tww is a lot longer than i remembered because i only remembered the fire dungeon, the five main ones (plus forsaken fortress), and the final dungeon, in addition to the triforce hunt.
i forgot:
-you needed to sail to greatfish island for korl to tell you to sail to windfall (what the hell how does this happen nintendo)
-you needed to free tingle from prison
-you needed to defeat cyclos and travel to the mother and child isles via warp pointing there
-you had to play hide and go seek with the kids, and then get a joy pendant from a tree, and then give the teacher 20 other joy pendants to get a deed that would grant you access to a room where you would find a triforce shard (eventually)
-you had to complete a mini dungeon area in order to get a map to get to a ghost ship that only appears at certain places on the sea on certain nights
-you have to visit beedle to get a pear to get a seagull to activate switches so you can go inside a room and kill a bunch of bad guys
-there was an ice minidungeon (i always thought the ice and fire dungeons were part of the same one, but i clearly mixed that up with some other zelda, i think)
and that's really on top of all the stuff the game obviously has you doing. i can appreciate the idea that if you ever get stuck, you have to explore your way out of the problem, but it doesn't feel like zelda nes where you could honestly go everywhere out of the sake of wanting to go everywhere.
the other element i really didn't like was just how many of the triforce shard hunts broke down into fighting rooms full of enemies. either on ships, or in gauntlet settings, it gets pretty repetitive, as fun as i find the combat.
that's really the one part i took away from the end of the game. it was just that in addition to finding the triforce shards, you had to do
so much that seems inconsequential. last night i broke up the hunt to about 2 before the earth temple, 4 after, and the final 2 after the wind temple. it went fairly quickly, but it was just a thing i picked up on because i thought the hunt was a lot shorter than it really was.
on the positive side, i still really love the wind temple. it's got a great atmosphere (and beautiful, if a bit repetitive, music). it's one of my favorite 3d zelda dungeons. for me i think the dungeons go wind temple > earth temple > tower of the gods > forbidden woods > dragon roost cavern > forsaken fortress (i've forgotten how the final dungeon goes, actually, so i'm looking forward to replaying that tonight).
). 
