I only noticed how off this enviroment is once I played Pathfinder. Smaller hubs connected through a world map for travelling would have been about the same amount of work (easier for optimisation as well) and would have yielded more real feeling maps. Pathfinder and BG1 demonstrated how you can still add exploration to such world-hub combinations. The result of Larian here was that to me it completely felt like a module in a handbook for a DM to use - each map a chapter with its own little optional encounters to pick up or not before moving to the next chapter - which is ironic since Pathfinder Kingmaker was based on a module and didn't have that feeling at all, but felt much more like a story and a world to explore.
I don't see them changing this. It would require probably major reworks and a change in world building philosophy would also affect every hub afterwards. Once you start changing the map, you need to adjust for encounter, story, quests on that map... even if its just adding a bit more ground. You don't want it to feel added, but integral to the original design.
