I played BotW a lot, and really loved it. I feel like the beginning of the game was relatively easy compared to TotK, I died a few times trying out things, discovering the game and possibilities ; in TotK I died a lot and still do even with good gear and armour (1*-2* armors, 30-40+ damage weapons).
You could say it's skill issues and I would agree with you as I am not a pro player and play games once a week maybe, however I feel like the difficulty curve is far greater in TotK.
That has affected how I view the game to the point that sometimes I think I dislike it (even though the new powers are the best thing they could have added, with the verticality of the world) ; that might also have to do with the much darker ambiance of the game, which can feel frightening (to me) to the point going underground is hard.
Is it just me? Should I just "git gud"?
I wanted to do the same as in BOTW and go get the towers shrines I found along the way before doing anything else... The towers don't open before you start doing quests???
When I discovered the depths though that's when I went wild and unlocked as many pods as possible.
Yeah, I climbed a couple of towers and trundled around without figuring out how to enter them before realizing I had to do some main quest as well.