They mentioned they are going to rethink two core concepts...doing dungeons in an order and playing alone. Which means multiplayer and *shudders* Non-Linearity.
I'm kind of looking forward to whatever form this hypothetical multiplayer takes, but at the same time, I dread it a little. Zelda has never done this on a large scale (the Four Swords games don't even count), so I'm a little leery if they spend too much time forcing a broken multiplayer system and neglect the rest of the game. I'm not automatically condemning it, and I actually have some multiplayer ideas that would totally kick butt, but it slightly worries me as well.
But I still think you're kind of unnecessarily shuddering about non-linearity. I don't particularly have a problem with it if it's just a personal preference of yours, but I think it's important to remember Zelda was a) founded on non-linearity and b) other games with similar goals as Zelda have tried non-linearity (or at least an open world design) and worked to incredible success (Skyrim, anyone?). Zelda has actually been less like itself for most of the past twenty-five years or so rather than further defining itself.
Even if non-linearity isn't taken completely to heart, a large, deep, open world design is one of the top things Zelda could use, which I'm sure you'd agree with. For the most part, I'd still be fine with a linear dungeon order if the world was huge, packed with secrets, and deeply rewarded exploration.