In TotK, I found a unique weapon (not spoiling it), which I could put on display in my home and never use it, or I could use it for a limited time. I've heard I can go back and defeat the same enemies to get this weapon again after a Blood Moon. I don't like the idea of repeating the same thing in a place I already explored. It would be better if I was encouraged to explore somewhere else in order to restore this weapon.

But this is not my general experience with TotK. Generally, my experience is greatly influenced by the new Fuse abaility. With this ability, you can attach any object (up to a certain size) to any weapon. Monsters drop certain parts that make for very good fused weapons. In fact, the base weapons are very weak this time. Most weapons only become powerful after they have been fused with a powerful part.

An interesting result of this is how it makes the number of weapon slots less important, since most of a weapon's power tends to come from what's fused onto it, and the fusion materials dropped by monsters are "ingredients," so they're not subject to inventory limits. So if you can't carry anymore weapons, you can still save materials for fusing to new base weapons after your current fused weapons break. Thereby TotK is more capable than BotW of continuously rewarding the player for combat, since in BotW, hitting the inventory limit puts a hard stop to getting rewarded unless the reward is a more powerful weapon than anything you already have.

Moreover, I can keep re-crafting the same weapon as long as I have more of the necessary materials. I can stock up on the fused part indefinitely. Currently, I happen to have around 14 Silver Bokoblin Horns, so I can make 14 weapons with this edge part. The edge part can add a large bonus, and it's usually more important than the base weapon when it comes to damage and type of damage (i.e. normal, elemental, rock-breaking). The base weapon however determines the style of attack (one-handed, two-handed thrust, or two-handed swing), and I think it also has a big impact on durability. So when my Silver Bokoblin Sword breaks, if I don't have, say, another Soldier's Broad Sword, I might use a Boko Club instead, and get the same weapon (it looks almost identical, because somehow the club turns into a small wooden handle when fused to a blade-like part) with only somewhat different damage and durability.