I've had a lot of games land on my desk...

[Tellis]

I rarely use the shield in WW myself...

Yeah, but that's Wind Waker. The combat's pretty simple and straightforward, not much use for a shield, 'cept for the few enemies with weapons, and they drop their weapons super easily anyway. Skyward Sword's combat is, from what we've seen, a lot more intensive, so a reliable shield would be really handy because you're going to be using the shield a lot to block attacks and then counter, or whatever. Having it break from non-extraordinary circumstances just seems like kind of a deal-breaker to me. And of course, we're going off of one person recounting their playing experience, so maybe this is all foolishness, I'd have to play it to know for sure if it's annoying.

And realism can just go suck it. I've never played a game for realism. But that's just me.

edit: Man, I feel like making a thread about where realism does and doesn't work in video games but I don't have any time to give it a proper write-up today...