I think it might have more to do with modern gamers. Budgets were not better back in the day.
At the risk of sounding like an old timer, games used to be way more complex.
Stories were good or bad but there was a lot more open world/choices in games.
How many modern games do you build something then interact with that world?
And random encounters are a great filler. In Fallout 1&2 you had to be ready to fight anything. In the later ones you know if you will be fighting humans, monsters, ghouls etc.
Random encounters can still be "hand-placed" since some games define the kinds of enemies that appear in a given area, but I see what you mean. Both can be done sloppily. To me, not being able to anticipate what you're going up against in a fight without being killed by it first
Do I need to remind you you're on the Dwarf Fortress forum? When you google "most complex game ever" the first thing that comes up is DF. You're surely blind if you think that there isn't a bevy of options out there.
We're drowning in open world games today that are bursting with choice. If choice is all you want, there's never been
more.
Dwarf Fortress (again), Space Engineers, Starsector, Cortex Command, Survivalist, Subnautica, and Factorio, are just a few, excellent, modern games in my library that easily meet that criteria.
Games have always been beautiful and people never
stopped having good ideas. The games that came before have inspired the designers of today. With the indie wave, games have become more complex, varied, and free than ever before. We are living in a golden age, and you're squandering it by not making an effort to take in what's around you.
A lot of old games that are hailed as "open world" are typically pretty boring and empty, however technically impressive they are. Daggerfall for instance; sure, you can ride your horse all over the largest map in gaming history, and there's absolutely nothing anywhere but small hills and tree sprites.
It also drives me insane when games like Final Fantasy or Zelda are said to be "open world." Yes, there is a world and technically you can go anywhere, as long as you have the required key items and plot flags set by going to each dungeon and town in exactly the order prescribed by the game. When you've got the ultimate vehicle, opened all the waist-high fences and gotten all the items, it's truly an open-world game!.... now that there's nothing to do besides go beat the final boss.
So at what point does a game become open-world, for you?