What I dislike most about open spaced games is the lack of uncovering what feel like meaningful coincidences or significance unfolding from marginal decisions. Anything unintentional comes off as sterile.
I guess I sort of just rearticulated what was already posted, but I had been thinking about it a bit and I think a lot of what I like about roguelikes are what I find lacking in “open world” & metroidvania games