Pokemon did nothing with it. It's the same game but with a world map you barely interact with. IMO routes were better. At least routes involved navigation, gimmickry, and some sort of intentional journey.
Why the fuck did they give us an open world map but you still have to best the gyms in a specific order.... just make them scale based on how many badges you have.....
Pokémon is just a shitty candidate for an open world game. It's a classic turn-based RPG, and the story of the gameplay is being able to progress through areas and do things that were once difficult or impossible.
People didnt like SV because it had an open world. They liked the idea of an open world pokemon and SV's other strengths carried it.
Like, what was everyone's favorite part of the game? Area Zero, which was dead linear, and had a very typical JRPG linear storytelling.
That's what it looks lile when a JRPG plays into its strengths instead of trying to emulate the style of WRPGs built from the ground up to play open
Open world Pokemon should be a slam dunk but Paldea was such a boring world. There was nothing to actually discover except the Pokemon themselves, no unique structures or hidden stories or anything