Seems to me someone never heard of the Randomizer communities on Discord before .
Obviously I am very much aware of the existence of Citra and the 3DS ports (in fact, I bought those as well, I mean, I hardly couldn't as a Zelda fan myself). It has been my consideration once before for my projects, but the N64 versions fit my goals better. While I said I refused to support the 3DS version as my current stance, that won't mean it would be my permanent stance. Everything can happen in the future. The decompilation is for example is going to be a game changer here which will surely affect how I continue forward with my projects.
But given the current status of the 3DS ports, a lot, and I mean a lot has to happen in the modding scene before I am willing to reconsider my mind. Another example here if that I refused to support my projects for Project64 since Dolphin was the superior emulator, but quite a bit did happen and thanks to GlideN64 and some essential improvements to Project64 I eventually did change my mind. It's especially thanks to the patcher itself that using Project64 is becoming more appealing. Project64's biggest downside is still it's inferior GameShark compared to Dolphin's Action Replay, but thanks to modding ROMs directly that's no longer a concern. Once I get 30/60 FPS working within the ROM itself, what would be even holding me back not to return to Project64.
You shouldn't try to put everyone into boxes and groups here. Why not try instead to broaden your mind here? Not everyone simply plays games for their purist experience, or because they speedrun it, or because they aim to break they game. That's comes off as too basic as to which types of persons exists on this planet. Everyone sees something different in what they seek in their games. For some players doing a casual run-through can be as hard and engaging as to how a speedrunner plays it. Different people, different interests and skill levels. Some indeed prefer having the games as purest as possible because that's how it was designed, and some like me don't take enough with that and want to put back the games on the map through modding. Yes, it's a drastic overhaul for sure, and I am pretty sure you can't even consider it as a N64 title at this point but rather some kind of remastered title on the PC. And that's what matters here, the PC. The PC is ultimately the platform that can elevate both games to new heights. This was and always has been my primary interest.
Everything about the patcher was designed to fully perfect OoT and MM in my mind (and SM64 to a smaller degree), and everything else is simply secondary. Whatever people do like this new changes or not remains up to themselves.
And what's wrong if the user happens to be some kind of "super-casual"? If that's their way of enjoying the game the most, then that's what matters.
While you can be against the fact of modding the game itself because it will no longer be "purist" most options the patcher provide are really just changing a few bytes. The 2x Damage Taken option was in fact even present in the 3DS port, hence the inspiration for it. The Master Quest dungeons option are just the exact same official map designs by Nintendo themselves. Restoration or Censorship options are also official, just from different versions. One might prefer the censored Fire Temple theme more, who knows. Other options would have definitely been considered "official" if Nintendo just had the modern hardware or time for it (like 30 FPS, Extended Draw Distance, Widescreen, bug fixes). Options related to muting Navi go along with the consenses that Navi is just annoying and should have been muted from the start. The D-Pad is widely agreed upon it improves the game by freeing up some of the most important items (meaning the Water Temple can actually be enjoyable without the need to re-open the Pause Screen like 30 times) to buttons on the N64 controller Nintendo didn't even bother to make use of. Even changing colors are just what they are, extremely minor changes that keep every intact but use the color scheme you prefer for certain HUD elements. Who knows, you might prefer having Tatl around in OoT, or you might prefer using the Majora's Mask Young Link model in OoT instead. While not official for OoT, these are the official designs by Nintendo for their sequel MM. And that's only the surface of what the appeal of the patcher is. Who knows, you might like the cut Japanese content back in MM. Or maybe you want to play as a female version of Link, since that's an option too, including with pronouns and animation changes as well. That's what someone could label as accessibility.
And all of this is just barely of what modding is capable off. How about full co-op like with the PC port of SM64? Yes. That's definitely possible in the future.
What does surprise me however is that modding MM3D with the Restoration Patch is considered a perfectly "official" method while modding the N64 ROMs is seen as some kind of taboo. You can't classify the Restoration Patch for MM3D as "purist" by that same logic as well then since that's not how Nintendo re-designed Majora's Mask. Just because we both didn't like the new changes to it doesn't mean it's no longer a valid game. That's simply how Nintendo wanted the port to be. And the casual audience seems to love it (perhaps not every change then, lol).
Obviously I am very much aware of the existence of Citra and the 3DS ports (in fact, I bought those as well, I mean, I hardly couldn't as a Zelda fan myself). It has been my consideration once before for my projects, but the N64 versions fit my goals better. While I said I refused to support the 3DS version as my current stance, that won't mean it would be my permanent stance. Everything can happen in the future. The decompilation is for example is going to be a game changer here which will surely affect how I continue forward with my projects.
But given the current status of the 3DS ports, a lot, and I mean a lot has to happen in the modding scene before I am willing to reconsider my mind. Another example here if that I refused to support my projects for Project64 since Dolphin was the superior emulator, but quite a bit did happen and thanks to GlideN64 and some essential improvements to Project64 I eventually did change my mind. It's especially thanks to the patcher itself that using Project64 is becoming more appealing. Project64's biggest downside is still it's inferior GameShark compared to Dolphin's Action Replay, but thanks to modding ROMs directly that's no longer a concern. Once I get 30/60 FPS working within the ROM itself, what would be even holding me back not to return to Project64.
You shouldn't try to put everyone into boxes and groups here. Why not try instead to broaden your mind here? Not everyone simply plays games for their purist experience, or because they speedrun it, or because they aim to break they game. That's comes off as too basic as to which types of persons exists on this planet. Everyone sees something different in what they seek in their games. For some players doing a casual run-through can be as hard and engaging as to how a speedrunner plays it. Different people, different interests and skill levels. Some indeed prefer having the games as purest as possible because that's how it was designed, and some like me don't take enough with that and want to put back the games on the map through modding. Yes, it's a drastic overhaul for sure, and I am pretty sure you can't even consider it as a N64 title at this point but rather some kind of remastered title on the PC. And that's what matters here, the PC. The PC is ultimately the platform that can elevate both games to new heights. This was and always has been my primary interest.
Everything about the patcher was designed to fully perfect OoT and MM in my mind (and SM64 to a smaller degree), and everything else is simply secondary. Whatever people do like this new changes or not remains up to themselves.
And what's wrong if the user happens to be some kind of "super-casual"? If that's their way of enjoying the game the most, then that's what matters.
While you can be against the fact of modding the game itself because it will no longer be "purist" most options the patcher provide are really just changing a few bytes. The 2x Damage Taken option was in fact even present in the 3DS port, hence the inspiration for it. The Master Quest dungeons option are just the exact same official map designs by Nintendo themselves. Restoration or Censorship options are also official, just from different versions. One might prefer the censored Fire Temple theme more, who knows. Other options would have definitely been considered "official" if Nintendo just had the modern hardware or time for it (like 30 FPS, Extended Draw Distance, Widescreen, bug fixes). Options related to muting Navi go along with the consenses that Navi is just annoying and should have been muted from the start. The D-Pad is widely agreed upon it improves the game by freeing up some of the most important items (meaning the Water Temple can actually be enjoyable without the need to re-open the Pause Screen like 30 times) to buttons on the N64 controller Nintendo didn't even bother to make use of. Even changing colors are just what they are, extremely minor changes that keep every intact but use the color scheme you prefer for certain HUD elements. Who knows, you might prefer having Tatl around in OoT, or you might prefer using the Majora's Mask Young Link model in OoT instead. While not official for OoT, these are the official designs by Nintendo for their sequel MM. And that's only the surface of what the appeal of the patcher is. Who knows, you might like the cut Japanese content back in MM. Or maybe you want to play as a female version of Link, since that's an option too, including with pronouns and animation changes as well. That's what someone could label as accessibility.
And all of this is just barely of what modding is capable off. How about full co-op like with the PC port of SM64? Yes. That's definitely possible in the future.
What does surprise me however is that modding MM3D with the Restoration Patch is considered a perfectly "official" method while modding the N64 ROMs is seen as some kind of taboo. You can't classify the Restoration Patch for MM3D as "purist" by that same logic as well then since that's not how Nintendo re-designed Majora's Mask. Just because we both didn't like the new changes to it doesn't mean it's no longer a valid game. That's simply how Nintendo wanted the port to be. And the casual audience seems to love it (perhaps not every change then, lol).