I think so, I think Ocarina of Time earns its high esteem, and Ship of Harkinian irons out a lot of the QoL issues that make the original annoying, like being able to toggle boots without going into the menu.

After you finish OoT I'd recommend running Majora's Mask via 2 Ship 2 Harkinian as well. It's less popular than OoT but every bit as good, I think. I can't pick just one, but if I had to pick a "#1 favorite video game of all time", Majora's Mask would be a finalist. It's really good.

Looking closer I think all the child characters look really uncanny. They're all so stubby with huge eyes and it's just weird. Adult link and Ganon look great though.

Whenever someone tries to remake a Nintendo game in a realistic art style people would sarcastically say "Nintendo, hire this man!!!"

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nintendo-hire-this-man

I think most people would agree with you, the remakes have QoL improvements that basically make them the best version.

Sure some people will always be nostalgic for the originals, but as remakes continue what is the original?

Let's look at Link's Awakening. If you played it on the Game Boy, it's a great game. But if you played it on the Game Boy Color it had the camera side quest and color dungeon, those were excellent. But if you played it on the Switch the camera side quest is now Dampe's Dungeon Creator.

I personally liked the camera side quest, but Dampe's Dungeon Creator was an interesting addition and I think it was cool to see.

I grew up in the 90s and absolute adored my N64. OoT was my jam. Still my favourite Zelda game, though some others have come close.

Saying any N64 game except maybe Super Mario 64 has aged "great" is... a take, certainly. There's some very strongly rose-tinted nostalgia glasses on a lot of people, I think. And I'm not even just talking about the graphics. The polygons of the N64 era will always have a certain charm, for me. But my gods, but controls and the QoL features in general were not quite there yet in that era.

Goldeneye is another game that I think people mostly remember so fondly because of how they felt when they played it back then. Try playing it again today, after experiencing modern FPS QoL improvements, and uh... it's not great.

Revolutionary, cutting-edge games for their time, but they have not aged well imho.