The problem with the water overworld was a little underutilization (partly because of cut content, partly because they needed to have more to find period) as well as changing wind direction to change the boat's direction. With this direction change removed, plus a speed increase, I think this'll be one of the more engaging overworlds, but really it's a unique beast entirely... the way they have the underworld 'hubs' set up with little pre-dungeon puzzle areas is quite intriguing in its own right and since there are apparently tons of treasures to find below to send above, I think there's gonna be more than enough motivation to search everything here.
I still wish for a focused, entirely heavily designed overworld (which would mean, yes, smaller overworlds... which is ok, Nintendo), but this seems like a nice mixture of both preferences.