Its best the way it is.
IF you had to look away from your main screen and touch the gamepad to switch weapons it would get you kill.
The switch is by far better then the wii u. No touch controls are needed. It easy and fast to Nav though menus and items. Game play on tv and handheld mode are the same. No new controls to learn or mess things up.
But i guess thats just me. I dont have a problem with the switch or zelda it all works great.
No way dude, it could be one touch weapon equip, and pausing the game is fake anyway. But they could pause it for the gamepad, too, if that's necessary.
Wii U gamepad is comfortable to me, and the largeness is no different than playing switch portable style. With the bonus of having a real d pad. But I think someone will make a slide in replacement for the left joycon that has d pad.