The difference between this game's occasional empty locations and the empty locations of the last game that bore me (Uncharted 4) is as follows:
1) Zelda lets you literally go/climb anywhere. U4 has invisible walls and unclimbable surfaces everywhere, making the open level design feel artificial AND pointless. For the same square footage with no items or enemies or NPCs or collectibles, I can scour every interesting surface in Zelda.
2) I prefer the level design in Zelda. Just the forest section had more interesting structures, placement of trees and rocks, verticality, etc to look around in. When you leave the chamber, you can immediately jump off an alcove into a lake, head toward some ruins or the Temple of Time, etc. And the sheer scale, mystery, and accessibility of it all makes it more inherently interesting for me to wander around than it does in most other games' empty level spaces.
I doubt I will mind the emptiness in BotW unless it gets too carried away. I still want NPCs and enemies and items along the way, which it seems it will provide.
A great example is Red Dead Redemption. That game made you want to take the scenic route.