This is so many flavors of wrong.
There's nothing difficult about adapting Zelda to the role of the hero or the role of the hero to Zelda. These Hero/Princess tropes are so vague and ambiguous that it's silly to even consider them a hurdle for using her in the role. She's already been portrayed in a whole number of different ways throughout the series that have shown her ability to buck the soft princess trope. From Sheik to Tetra to even a brief moment in Twilight Princess and much of her journey in SS. It wouldn't be hard at all to have a game with her play similarly to Link while still maintaining her unique attributes that differentiate her enough. You automatically jump to the two extremes when there's a very cushy middle ground that would allow for familiar gameplay while not being exactly the same.
Link is just a character, there's nothing significantly special about him that makes him Hero worthy, other than the fact that he's always been the hero. Zelda could just as easily embody that spirit and more importantly show that different people can be the hero despite their historical role.
You say it would be a meaningless step is beyond ridiculous. Taking the titular character of one of the most famous video game franchises around who has been all too often relegated to the sidelines and used a reward or object due solely to her gender would be meaningless in the role of the hero? Sorry what? That's literally one of the most important reason ever to elevate her to the position. To show that history and depiction is wrong.
Yet somehow turning a male character into a female character has meaning? That's a really terrible message to be sending. You're essentially saying that a girl can be the hero so long as she is exactly like the original male version, but the already female character who has been around just as long cannot because she's represents too much of a girl. That's pretty messed up.
I don't think it's so much that you couldn't have a character named Zelda who inherits visual/design/personality traits from the existing character named Zelda but now has many things in common with Link as well. I think it's more that the visual/design/personality traits already assigned to the existing character named Zelda - down all the way to her name - exist as the result of Nintendo's design mantra where the form of a thing complements and telegraphs its function.
The visual/design/personality traits already assigned to the existing character Link already accomplish the task of matching up the function of "hero in a fantasy world" with recognizable forms:
- the sword and shield
- the green tunic
- the heroic youth who is the last of his kin
- the name Link (which, as has been the case from the beginning, is a stand-in for the player's own name)
There's nothing wrong with having a woman named Zelda wear those forms, even one that as a character descends from the Princess Zelda we already know.
Neither is there anything wrong with having the existing Princess Zelda take on a starring role in a game, without wearing those forms.
What I'm questioning is whether there's really any reason to have the woman wearing the hero tropes be named/based on the Princess Zelda we already know, or whether having the existing Princess Zelda (who take on the starring role in a game would be more effective at achieving the mission of the Zelda series - to put the player in the role of the hero archetype.
Specifically, I'm questioning whether either of those strategies is
more effective at achieving the goal of "being inclusive of women in Nintendo's interpretation of the hero archetype" than simply allowing the option for their existing hero archetype player-avatar-who-can-take-the-player's-name character to also be female.
If the only problematic thing about Link as a stand-in for the player is that his traditional depiction has limited the hero to always be a white male, then the solution is to remove that limitation.
Princesses can be heroes. No one's disputing that. Zelda's already taken on this role in several games.
But The Legend of Zelda series gameplay is built on the back of a very specific kind of sword-and-shield, green tunic fantasy hero - one that girls should be able to be, too, instead of having to be heroes of the princess variety. And, like with other occupations like firefighters and police, I think that's best served by just letting women be firefighters and police - and legendary heroes of the Link variety.