The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, like many of its predecessors, sends Link on a journey across Hyrule to complete various tasks and gather items before he can face the final villain, who is often Ganon or his human form, Ganondorf. Similar to Breath of the Wild, Link has to visit the Rito, Zora, Gerudo, and Gorons to build his power in preparation for his battle. However, Tears of the Kingdom makes a large portion of Link's journey feel pointless in the end, even though players are given the impression that awakening the Sages is a must.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.]
Tears of the Kingdom follows Link's journey to find Princess Zelda, who vanished after exploring tunnels under Hyrule Castle, and discover a way to defeat Ganondorf, whom they accidentally freed while exploring the aforementioned tunnels. This event becomes known as the Upheaval, and its effects stretch across Hyrule. In his search for Zelda, Link awakens the power of Sages who are meant to aid him in his fight against Ganondorf. While the power of the Sages can be helpful going through Temples and Shrines, their abilities have severe limitations.
A large part of Tears of the Kingdom sets players up to believe that the Sages will play a role in the battle against Ganondorf. The dialogue from the Sages when they pass on their powers to their descendants and the Memories Link sees from the Dragon Tears found in Geoglyphs both make it seem like this will be the case and that Link can't face Ganondorf alone. Yet, when the time comes for Link to actually fight him, he loses the Sage abilities before the fight begins, essentially taking away the whole purpose they've been given during the game.
Link's new abilities in TOTK revolve around his arm that once belonged to Rauru. Unlike the Sage abilities, Link gaining Rauru's arm isn't explained as necessary for his fight against Ganondorf. Instead, the main purpose of Rauru's arm being given to Link is to keep him alive and allow him to fight at all, since Link's original arm was destroyed alongside the Master Sword by the Gloom that was released when Ganondorf was freed. As such, the abilities that come with Rauru's arm could be seen as bonuses instead of essential for fighting Ganondorf. Strangely, the most important ability of Link's in the fight against Ganondorf is the Flurry Rush that activates upon a perfect dodge, a holdover mechanic from Breath of the Wild.
It can feel disappointing that abilities that make up an important part of the journey to reaching the fight against Ganondorf aren't used when it comes to the final stretch of the story. Players don't need Link's building abilities to reach Ganondorf, even though Tears of the Kingdom forces players to use those same abilities throughout the game, and learning how to use them is a large part of the tutorial. In the end, the fight against Ganondorf comes down to being able to use Flurry Rush, and player preparation with gear, upgrades, and cooking ability.
There are powerful cooking recipes in TOTK that are more useful to players during the fight against Ganondorf than any of the Sage abilities. The first reason for this is that Link can bring meals into the final battle with him, while he loses the Sage abilities before this point. The second reason is that meals or elixirs with the bonus trait for returning Hearts lost to Gloom, such as Dark Rice Balls or various Sundelion recipes, are essential against a boss that deals a lot of Gloom damage. As nice as the Sage abilities can be, they can't help Link against Gloom damage.
Armor Upgrades in Tears of the Kingdom are unlocked through part of the "Potential Princess Sightings!" side quests with the Lucky Clover Gazette. Specifically, Link has to take a music troupe to play for the Great Fairy's bud to prove that the world isn't as frightening as they were told. Then, the upgrades are done through Great Fairies, but players have to collect various materials depending on the armor they want to upgrade for the Great Fairy to enhance it. It's difficult to argue against higher defensive stats on armor pieces, especially against bosses, which makes the Great Fairies more useful against Ganondorf than the Sages who have been a crucial part of the game's overarching story.
Then, the Statues of the Goddess can grant Link additional Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels in exchange for Lights of Blessing. While Link receives a Heart Container at the end of each temple, the bulk of his Hearts in Tears of the Kingdom comes from completing Shrines and getting the Light of Blessing at the end of each one. For every four Lights of Blessing, Link can receive either a Heart Container or a Stamina Vessel from a Statue of the Goddess. With 152 shrines spread out between the Surface and the Sky, players can gather plenty of Hearts and Stamina even without completing every shrine.
Zelda makes Link the one hero who can save Hyrule across the games in the series since he's capable of wielding the Master Sword, but that doesn't mean he has to do the job alone. Tears of the Kingdom had the perfect chance to have Link receive help from friends, and he helped each of them save their homes during his journey. Being able to see Link be supported by the people he helped without question could have been the perfect culmination for a story that built the expectation that this would be the case, only for Link to end up facing Ganondorf alone in the end again.
Tears of the Kingdom is a highly rated game, but that doesn't mean that it's perfect. As enjoyable as it can be, the ending has a way of making most of what Link is told is necessary to do before confronting Ganondorf turn out to be useless. Zelda asked the Sages of the past to pass on their abilities to their descendants so that they'd be able to assist Link against Ganondorf when he's freed in the future. However, Link doesn't receive help from the Sages against Ganondorf, and the fight comes down to his armor, cooking, and the player's ability to use Flurry Rush in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.