Umm… People like Link, gay people like Link, trans people like Link, Straight people like Link.

Some people want to do Link, some people want to be Link. Some people just wish they were pals with Link…

My point, it doesn't exclusively mean one thing or the other. Just because some people find Link sexy, just because some see themselves and their sexuality in Link, just because of any other little thing… Link is an icon of many things, he cannot belong to one thing, for he is a Legend in everything.

I like how even TV Tropes got to the point this is quickly galloping its way into the dead horse trope.

There's representation, there's misinterpretation and there's preaching what amounts to your fanfic as gospel.

As you said, now that joke is now dead and buried, and now legitimate representation can be seen as either noise, pandering for sake of pandering, or the author being bullied into saying it if their audience won't take "I'll leave that as an exercise for the audience" as an answer.

Let's get Ranma 1/2 for example. Born a man, default state is a man, but by the power of the curse is turned into a 100% biological woman. Couple that with the fact he sometimes actively exploits his genderbending, I'm not sure if people today would buy the mangaka's stance that "Ranma won't get pregnant, so whether he could get pregnant is a moot point".

(Come to think about it, I would have expected more Ranma in such discussions. I assume he isn't a good "use case" because of specific details from the universe and they don't see him as truly struggling)