>>36563267>most of the type you're guided down one way with little to no side areasWhy are you saying that? It's not true. There are so many examples to prove you wrong that I don't even know where to start. Pacifidlog and its surrounding water routes are optional, including their underwater sections. The desert is optional. The route south of Mt. Pyre is optional. New Mauville is optional. Shoal Cave and the Abandoned Ship are optional. The entire Trick House is optional. Even the non-optional routes often have some optional nooks and crannies such as pic related.
And another reason that Hoenn has better level design is because of dungeons. Sinnoh is fairly bland in this regard with places like Wayward cave, Iron Island, most of Mt. Coronet, and Stark Mountain (more so in DP than Pt) being generic caves. Hoenn has some cooler settings like the aforementioned Abandoned Ship and New Mauville, Shoal Cave has a cool tide gimmick, and Meteor Falls looks unique for a cave. My point should really become obvious when you compare places like Fuego Ironworks to the Abandoned Ship, Iron Island to Shoal Cave, or the Lost Tower to Mt. Pyre. Try to map each location in Hoenn to a rough equivalent in Sinnoh.
