Games

Yep. Open world games usually feel like they can't have any blank spaces, and so they waste resources filling every inch with something, even if it's just a waste of time. You've always been able to run past enemies in FS games, but it took effort and you had to pay attention. The open world of ER wastes so many resources filling the open world, but also makes it trivial to not engage with. Even when there's a collectable you want, you just ride by on Torrent, grab it, and leave. You don't engage with it, but they expended time and money creating it.

The open world gives you a lot of distinct options, but do you really have more real ones than DS1? At the start of DS1 you have three paths (4 with the master key). In ER at the start you have three obvious paths (Stormveil, Weeping Peninsula, and Cailid) and one less obvious (going around Stormveil). I'd argue the paths of DS1 are far more interesting to engage with. The Catacombs are a design mistake though because it's so hard to get out of. The reward for that path is very interesting for a new start (and it's balanced for a new player, which is why Pinwheel becomes a joke at the mid-game when most people fight him), but getting out without the Lord Vessel is a huge challenge. It needs to have a TP or jump or something at the bottom to get back when you're done.

But you could always run past enemies in Dark Souls, and it was a much more relevant gameplay pattern in those games that didn't put a Stake of Marika right in front of the boss door. I think the open world adding nonlinearity to the Souls system was really elegant, since getting stuck on a boss meant you usually had something else interesting to do while improving your skills and/or grinding for stats. You still can bash your head into the boss over and over until you finally solve the skill issue, of course, and Stakes of Marika make that a lot less frustrating. But if you were in the situation in DS1-3 and decided "no, I want better numbers before I try again" you just had to go grind trash to level up and that's it. At least the "go fuck off and farm souls" option in Elden Ring is fun when doing so is clearing minidungeons and evergaols and maybe seeing new loot.