I agree! The lack of side quests (and mini games too, for that matter) in TP was extremely disappointing.
I'm sure that we'll get a few more interesting ones in SS, though, what with the new gameplay options and all.
Definitely looks like it will be. One of the boss battle videos showed some really creative fighting tactics and the boss did some fairly heavy damage (at least when comparing it to the bosses in TP, heh), so hopefully there will be a lovely element of challenge in Skyward Sword that wasn't...