Your reply was kind of exactly the type of thorough breakdown I was looking for! Thank you for all that detailed information. It certainly sounds like theres some ludonarrative dissonance going on given the open world design vs linear storh.

Maybe I’ll wait for a few months after the already confirmed GOTY edition, see how it plays after that, then add the inevitable mods improving the core gameplay systems if I want to. Fingers crossed they do a better job with the sequel.