I happen to like the idea of side-scrolling. Multiple camera angles is hard to pull off in a top-down Zelda without making the player discombobulated and frustrated, at least imho (have you seen that Majora's Mask 2D trailer? They did camera angle changes in that and it just didn't work well).
I really think the OoT2D Team is handling things great. Also, simply putting OoT into 2D IS reinventing, no?
It's obvious that you can't just put a 3D Zelda into 2D and not have to make some major changes; that's kind of the whole point, to make it the same, but different, isn't it? The trick is to keep enough of the same game while making something new to experience. So far, that is what I see happening with this OoT2D. At least, that's how I see it.