Y'know, I can definitely see where you're coming from.
AoC was a genuine attempt to try to give a Zelda game a more creative story with better character development. I appreciated that quite a bit, even if I have issues with the execution. I tend to lean towards being a story over gameplay kind of guy, so that extra effort was nice to see. It created a far better sense of urgency than BotW's story ever did.
As far as gameplay is concerned, it's kind of hard for me to compare them, personally. AoC fills the Warriors niche of hacking up everything in sight, while BotW is a slow-paced, exploration-focused adventure.
I enjoy both, although I would definitely say that AoC has much better replay value than BotW. The main attraction in BotW is that big open-world, but once the novelty of exploring that is gone, there's not much reason to return to the game. I consider it one of my favorite Zelda games, and I still feel that way about it. On the other hand, AoC has so many gameplay challenges to tackle and replay that it feels like a more substantial game in some aspects, even if there's overall less to do in it.