TP is undoubtedly one of the best and most successful entries in the franchise, if not the best and most successful.
Sure there will always be a vocal minority of people that don't like it for one reason or another (perhaps their bias in favor of what WW introduced for the franchise), but it's impossible to deny TP's success and popularity using the only two metrics that are possible - critic reviews and sales. In the same way that a movie is considered successful and popular if both critics and the box office churn out big numbers, it also applies for video games.
I have a huge disdain for "gaming journalism", and I believe that any 3D Zelda no matter the quality would have received "critical acclaim" in the mid-2000s even if it was sorely lacking in quality. But the fact that TP still holds such a lofty review average (96 on Metacritic for the GC version, 95 for the Wii version) is still indicative of how amazing it was during its era for the entire critical community, not just quite a few pro-Zelda writers (as we later see with SS and how 3D Zelda has finally started to see some cracks in its review-proof armor).
The biggest indicator of TP's appeal is definitely seen in its sales though. OoT is legendary in how it revolutionized 3D gaming and how we even thought about games that were 3D - the idea that TP just on the Wii alone almost dethroned its record is pretty admirable (granting TP the advantage of its original GC release does put it above OoT's original release). I doubt TPHD will be able to combine with the numbers to defeat OoT's total release numbers, but the fact remains that TP is more likely than not to be the only game that will even come close to OoT and its legend status.
Just another fun fact that speaks to its quality for me is that SS, after four years of Wii install base growth and heavy advertising via the series 25th anniversary, barely mustered up over half of TP's sales on the Wii is enough of a testament to TP and how good it is.
