Have you ever thought that Winter intended for this to happen? Of course he knew if it got big enough Nintendo would stop it, but it being a 2D top-down remake of a huge title such as BOTW is great to publicize the game. there was already a plan to make new sprites before Nintendo did anything, and I would say that the early versions brought a lot of attention to his project, I would say this is a HUGE success so far, wouldn't you?
Well, there's a couple of thoughts...
a) I will keep condemning the concept or premature fanfare. (various reasons)
b) good theory and might be very true
c) the new sprites could still be just the dev getting cold feet ahead of time, but well after making the game public. I'm not saying that's the reason definitely, but then again nobody can look into the dev's mind. Just a theory.
d) Yes, a huge success indeed.