True, Twilight Princess started out so well, but didn't keep up the momentum of it's story. To be fair, it did take some original turns, such as creating an actual romantic interest for Link, two in fact and neither were Zelda. They didn't explain Zant or Ganondorf's involvement nearly enough to make you care by end game. With all the potential they built up, Zant was just a weak puppet, and Ganondorf was just there (How'd he escape after OoT in the first place?). I did enjoy the implication that the spirit you learned techniques from was the Hero of Time, the attempt at consistency between OoT Hyrule and TP Hyrule, and the return of Gorons and Zoras.
Perhaps. They've had sky based races in the past two console iterations. If it did happen, I'd hope they'd keep it from being too much the central focus, lest we run into Wind Waker's fault. The sailing would have been awesome had there been enough landmass to keep it from being tedious.