I think the issue here is not if Link speaks or not. The issue is how Nintendo does the story for Zelda games. I'll explain.
With mute protagonists, the story has to be told in the 3rd person. ie the NPCs and other playable characters have to be the ones telling the story. The main chatacter can be involved in the story but he can't directly influence it. Some good examples of this are:
Dragon Quest XI - The hero doesn't influence the story at all. He's just the unlucky one to whom the story unfolds onto. It's the other playable characters and NPCs that tell the story and get the hero to act all heroic like. They tell the story and the hero just acts it out.
Diablo 1-3 - In all three Diablo games, the playable character is just a passive witness to the story. It's the NPCs that tell the entire story. You are just along for the ride.
Metroid Prime - The story is told entirely by what you scan, be it enemies or bits of the environment or ancient artifacts. The story unfolds all around you piece by piece and you don't know it all until the end of the story so it's quite mysterious until the end of the game.
Mario Galaxy and Mario Odyssey - Not much of a story in both games, but what little story is there is all told to Mario by NPCs. Mario just says "uh-uh and "it's a me Mario".
The Legend of Zelda series needs to do the same, so the story is told totally from everyone else except Link. Link needs to actively participate in the game play (obviously) but only passively partake in the story. I'm not saying Link should be an empty avatar. Link needs personality and a purpose for existing. Of cause Link needs character development throughout the game too.
Link also needs to be partaking in the story. Not just staring at the other NPCs as they tell the story. It's a fine balancing act, to partake in the story without actively doing so. Look at Dragon Quest XI as a good example. The hero there is the one who does all the heroic actions and is the main centre point of every story moment but it's everyone else telling the story.
There's a real world way to explain this. It's a thing we sometimes do at Toastmasters.
Imagine you have to give a speech. In this case it's 1-2 minutes but the length of it doesn't matter. This speech is done by two people. One person speaks the speech but does not move at all. The other person is silent but acts out all the body language and actions of the speech.
Of cause in game the speaker (ie the NPCs and other playable characters) are not statues, they move and have actions too. But I think you get the point here.
The Legend of Zelda games fall down here because the story is told in spurts through the games, not continously throughout the whole game. Also most of the time it's just someone talking to Link. Boring. The story needs to come at pivotal moments of the game where Link is doing something important. Link is doing this important thing now. Why? The NPCs and other playable characters will tell you why and possibly partake in the important thing as well.
Silent protagonists have been done very well for decades by many games. The Legend of Zelda games are not in that list but they could be if Nintendo actually designed the game around the fact Link is silent and consider the above points I have said here.
