And so we should praise those that can rise above the failures of others. "This won't apply for many games" means they failed to make something interesting from my perspective. Realistic world design be damned if the emotion attempting to be conveyed isn't frustration. And I don't think many developers want their player to be frustrated unless they're Yoko Taro or something.
I usually find potatolands inescapably stupid. So I avoid games like that. A properly contextualized open world matters to me, it makes it more immersive and interesting to traverse. I'm not particularly interested in videogame levels in open world format.