Botw is empty. Yes, large maps are common in 2020. Elder scrolls, assassin's Creed, and GTA come to mind as full but large worlds. Instead of walking to a destination, you'd often run into side quests.
I'm wondering if you've only Nintendo gamed and are just unaware.
That is unnecessarily patronizing. Just because someone does not agree with your opinions does not mean they are ignorant.
And just to take the example I'm most familiar with from your list, sure you occasionally run across a side-quest in Skyrim, but most of the time the world is just populated with the same small set of spawning NPCs who exist to add the 12 or so big quests to your journal.
The sheer seriousness with which that series takes itself and how ridiculously cringey it ends up being, due to broken AI and a host of other problems, is something of a hilarious meme:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcybVOrBgpzUxm-mlBT0WTA/vid...
If that's your idea of "anything modern" then yikes, pass.