Wait, Link isn't real? -_-
Of course they can do whatever they want. It seems to pretty much boil down to some people seeing the Zelda franchise as Skyrim like avatars that are completely customizable, and some seeing them as actual characters.
I guess I see them as characters.
Again, they do can do whatever because it's a new "world" everytime, but I would personally annoyed if:
- Ganon was a light skinned, short, fat blond, girl who didn't use a sword.
- Zelda was boy who looked nothing like previous Zeldas
- Impa was some big dude sterotypical dunce bodyguard or something
They're different characters or reincarnations everytime so technically all of these are "okay".
It'd still annoy me though.
The characters could have those new traits and still be true to their past incarnations.
If all Link needs to be is dressed in green, a boy and carry a sword, what if he's turned into a murderer who doesn't go on any adventures whatsoever? Would that be more true to Link than a Link just as courageous and adventurous as past Links, but who's a girl?
The criteria some people have for what constitutes "Link" is simply bogus and superficial. It's fine for you to be annoyed by changes, but that doesn't make your annoyance meaningful.
Art style may have changed, but all of these Link's are still males who wear green clothes (outside of the OOT one, and we all know he wears green in that) with swords. Art style may have changed, but the traits that make Link Link didn't. It's because of these that they can switch around the art and we can immediately look at Link and say "yep, that's Link".
Where do you draw the line then? Why is a complete art style shift with Wind Waker acceptable, but not a girl Link? What about a girl Link prevents the game from being a Zelda game?
And how does the character's sex change any of this? If the trailer Link was later revealed to be a flat-chested girl, people still will have thought "that must be Link" when seeing it the first time.
There's also no good reason why people are so averse to Link -as pictured above- being a boy.
This started when people started saying Link being a girl would annoy or bother them. No one has said they're averse to Link being a boy.
You admit there's no good reason to be averse to Link being a girl though, so that's a start.