This is tough. While the water based island definitely looks nice, it would take away more space to actually place things on the island. So more land seems more practical.
I think less water at the start might be best to utilize more land then maybe change it late game. It's hard to say without playing the game. Fishing might be my favourite activity. In which case I would want lots of fishing spots on my island.
I do like the motes on that island. I could see maybe one section of my island being like that (probably the urban area) and then the rest being more land focused.
The more land reminds me more of the older games, so I just seem to automatically gravitate towards that. The motes are a cool idea, but I'm not sure how big you could make them and still have a lot of space to build things. Another reasoning of mine for more land is that as a kid, I did find crossing rivers at a certain point (bridge) to be rather annoying sometimes, especially if you just needed to cross but had to walk halfway down the map to go over the bridge and then halfway back up again to actually get to where you wanted to go. However, this won't be as big of a problem with that pole vault tool
I'd rather have more land to do things with. That second picture has too much water. It feels like it would feel way too restrictive with designs.
The first one more looks like a bit of land with a moat around it for the "island". I think I would probably make a section of my island kind of like that. It would be fun.
While I like the water-based islands, I like the land ones more. It gives me more room to work with, and the island is already SURROUNDED by water and cut through by a river. The waterways are nice aesthetically, but it's not practical to me.
I'm definitely going to be terraforming to create areas up on cliffs and waterfalls and rivers in lovely shapes. I've been very inspired playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey's dlc, which is set in the Elysian Fields (mythological Greek afterlife). It's absolutely beautiful with its waterfalls and canals, infinity pools pouring over into infinity pools with walkways all around.
I don't think I can make a town quite that laiden down with rivers as that picture though. As others say, we need land, and can you imagine trying to roll a snowman together with that town layout? Nightmare material.
I like the idea of a water based island. I don't know if there's a limit to how much water we can place on the island, but if there isn't, I think I might set it up like that.
I would rather have more land and more levels instead of more water. I'm probably going to have a few rivers and waterfalls on my island, but water isn't going to be the main focus of the design.
