I'm not sure what the consensus is but this map makes me hyped to play these games. It's basically the perfect middle ground between more wide open level design and the route centric old map design. There's still routes between each settlement that take you through a variety of biomes, so if you stick to the main paths it'll feel kinda like you're taking routes, but you can also just wander off out of bounds now, every other offshoot contains like a whole other area that connects with other areas. It feels like what used to be empty space now has large secret areas. I know that doesn't equate to an especially large map in the context of how big game maps get these days but it's pretty fucking large by pokemon standards. Not to mention the game is completely non linear so you're free to explore to your hearts content, at whatever pace works for you