For what it's worth, I agree with the OP. I strongly dislike Larian's map design and have done so since the D: OS games.
Personally, I'd have prefered an overland/world map with separate locations which would have felt much better and would have allowed for short random encounters. BG3's approach doesn't really give you any feel of distance at all when Moonhaven (Blighted Village) is literally just 500 m from the druid grove. It just feel immersive and believable that way.
Not to mention the big narrative point in Act 1 is that the Goblins are actively looking for the Grove and they're having trouble finding it... But the grove is literally 300 meters away from them.
I got to Minthara and she was like "hey can you help me figure out where the druid's grove is?" and I was like mate... Just walk east for 10 minutes... Come on...
But yeah it sells cause people are addicted to dopamine so they need to kill or loot every minute they play or the game is "boring".
