After two years, completing 90-ish shrines, collecting 80-some Korok Seeds, and defeating all four Divine Beasts, last night I finally found Hestu

Yes, I almost ended up going through the entire main game with only my starting inventory slots

Yes, I was dropping equipment left and right. As someone who wanted to get all the chests in every shrine, I was constantly getting 'you can't carry any more of these,' dropping my weapon, reopening the chest to collect the new shitty spear, dropping the new shitty spear, and picking my better weapon back up

Or just leaving behind a great flameblade because the chest gave me another great flameblade

I kept thinking to myself, 'wow they really wanted you to cycle through equipment in this game huh? That's cool I guess, forces you to experience a variety of weapon styles'

Also I had to ask @krista for hints on where he was because I searched like every conceivable forest only for this dude to just be standing by the side of some road