sooo... jumping and adding new elements and exploration that you as a player can enjoy and have control over, isnt as important as the visual effect of npcs walking around that do nothing to add to the game but make it -look- better?
Without the latter (new elements for exploration), the former (jumping) is useless. Before that is taken care of, yes, anything is better than the former.

A lively world is a world you want to explore.