One thing I noticed about BOTW on the Wii U is that there isn't any sort of dual screen functionality. At one point this was advertised as a cool feature, but it appears that this was taken out "To Provide the same gameplay experience between the Wii U and Switch."
It seems like the inventory management stuff could have been handled on the gamepad pretty well instead of using menus on the TV. I think it's pretty clear that they consider the Switch the main platform for this game even if it was originally planned as a Wii U exclusive though.
My guess is that it probably had inventory management on it, but when they decided to make it a launch title for the switch, they removed the feature in order to not make the switch version look worse for having less features, and thus cannibalize potential switch console sales.
That may have gone into their logic, but honestly I doubt it would have made a difference in terms of sales. I think the idea of being able to play Zelda anywhere you want is a much better selling point than a dual screen with inventory/map management.