TotK's story had three tasks: be as dark and intense and it promised to be, do something interesting and not be just another standard Zelda plot, and finally, don't make the lore an even bigger mess than it already is.
It just failed so spectacularly in these three points that some people who...
Your theory works and all, but I honestly think it's simpler than that. BotW was thrown thousands of years into the future, specifically so that previous lore wouldn't be an issue; I seriously doubt they'd do a 180 on that in the very next game.
The way it seems to me, TotK's ancient past still...
He sounds like he's referring mostly to the open aspects of gameplay, which isn't really news; BotW was established as the new norm for Zelda before it even came out. The only thing that would have made them reconsider this direction was if TotK failed financially.
It's starting to look a lot like what BotW should have been. It was a good trailer on it's own, but I still can't help but feel that the whole game is just going to be a 'too little, too late' deal. It would have helped tremendously if they had given us a different plot and overworld.
Vote with your wallet, I guess.
Hard to tell if it's true, I would have normally expected them to wait until the next gen to start jacking up the prices. It certainly wouldn't be a surprise though, considering literally everything else has gotten more expensive in the last few years.