I had no problems with the Bird Statues at all. I loved the extra difficulty and additional layer of planning added to the game by forcing you to find a save point. It actually made dungeons
easier by giving you a reloadable check point instead of making you start at the beginning of the dungeon when you die.
Way I see it, problems with the save statues don't make a lot of sense. How many games have limited save points? Quite a few, really. You can argue that it's a step back all you want, but it's not there just for a limitation. Every game since the dawn of time that did this didn't have to; saving anywhere was a common feature. Having specific save points is a kind of design choice, and statements like "it's more primitive and feels like a step back" frankly have no place in a discussion about them. Ultimately what's going on is you don't like the design choice, or feel it goes badly in that game in particular, which is fine but has nothing to do with it being a less advanced form of saving.
The fact is that the Bird Statues enhanced multiple elements of Skyward Sword. They are:
- Difficulty; Having limited save points puts you in more danger.
- Planning and preparation; you will think twice about advancing without the right equipment since you can't just save and/or leave the area any time.
- Game structure; the sky is peaceful and free, and the surface is dangerous and confined. You can't just leave such a dangerous place freely.
These three are core elements of the game's design and they're a large part of what makes Skyward Sword what it is. The Bird Statues were a pretty necessary part of this, and I for one didn't mind using a (very) familiar gameplay convention in order to save for the sake of having these improvements.