It really does seem crowded. That, coupled with absence of concept of time, breaks immersion for me.
Two ways I can think of to make a map that's spacious and not boring at the same time:
- traversal is fun in itself (better suited to other [sub]genres)
- the "empty" environment is interesting and/or pretty by itself
You actually yourself pointed out another solution
This is one advantage of worlds with divided maps - you tell the player "the travel took 2 hours" and suddenly the distance becomes very believable.)
Dividing map in smaller pieces solve another problem. Now you have logical moments for long rests.
