I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
There was an incredibly steep learning curve with Elden Ring. But once I got to the Midgame, I was having a good time.
I didn't actually ever finish it, because I kept fucking off for 20 hours at a time just looking at all the pretty buildings and exploring dungeons. And I absolutely agree, it's really hard to pick up on what even constitutes as "Quest" in the traditional RPG sense. You just kinda find stuff and talk to people and hope you're moving in the right direction.
But I kinda consider that its charm. I feel like FromSoft can keep moving in this direction, shedding more and more of the interface, and eventually end up with a game where you're just a fucking person in a world who gets to do things. And maybe one of those things is to save the world. Or maybe you're just in this incredibly rich and deep sandbox, full of wonder and beauty, and you have a good time until you're done.