Sailing the Great Sea is as much a part of The Wind Waker as going through dungeons or using a bevy of items to solve puzzles. Obviously, this goes without saying, the Great Sea is, after all, the game's overworld. But what gets missed amidst complaints about the travel time between island being too long, or the Sea simply being too empty is that it's a genius way to control pace.
As in most forms of storytelling and entertainment good pace is essential to a good game. Just what a good pace is, though, depends on the kind of game. Filling a fighting game with dialogue makes no sense since the core of most fighters is frenzied button combinations, likewise, a speedy pace in a game that emphasizes (or at the least) rewards exploration won't be a good fit.
Zelda's never been a fighting franchise, but every game has seen exploration be rewarded in varied ways. The popularity of discovering things like the remnants of the Beta Quest within retail releases of Ocarina of Time is a testament to just how far fans of the franchise will go to discover new things about entries in the series.
Being an ocean based Zelda game, The Wind Waker is no exception to the series' long relationship with exploration. What better way to take the time worn tradition of discovering an area, finding out you need bombs to break down a wall, and then having to wait to get said bombs by forcing players to spend time sailing between the bomb shop and that wall?
Admittedly, the Great Sea is a kind of artificial way to build anticipation in this way, but it is nonetheless effective. There's just something about extra appealing to hearing vague whispers about some piece of treasure on some island or other, and then figuring out where that is and sailing there.
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