This is one of the main things that keeps me cautiously optimistic about Avowed. I hate open world games, I think they're too overblown and mostly go for a quantity over quality approach. So it was refreshing to know that Avowed would be doing smaller zones that you can explore until completion before moving onto the next zone.
The problem is the way this map is laid out. Did they take design cues from Larian? This kind of railroaded map design is such dogshit.
Ocarina of Time still did it better over 20 years ago. Smaller zones attached to a larger open zone (Hyrule fields). To me this is the perfect balance. Fuck that road shit.