Game Balance is only ruined by grinding if you give too many powerful items via shops anyway, which I strongly avoid. Only the Blue Ring, and even then, only b/c the original Zelda did this.
And while you are entitled to not like quests for doing what the original Zelda did, bear in mind ZC is based on it. While you're correct that it was easier to explore at the beginning, two things to bear in mind:
-Death mountain was pretty much a death trap if you lacked the Blue Ring or at least a few extra hearts, so it wasn't 100% safe.
-Demo Quest, which came with the original Zelda Classics, had the EXACT problem you described, in fact it had all of your problems.
It is not wrong to not like this, but it should absolutley be kept in mind when critiquing people's quests. It should also be noted that Zelda 3 restricts it's secrets the same way Zelda 1 did, with the exception that obvious bomb points are opened with super bombs, and that diving exists. The cheat code rooms and secret level room don't follow that rule, but, if you think about it, that kinda makes sense.
Well ok, giant snail shaped rocks can be destroyed by the black boomerang, but that is likely to be discovered by accident anyway.
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