I suspect a lot of it is a consequence of the expansion being split across two regions - Gyr Abania and the Far East. Luckily some settlements fare better than others but I would very much have liked the ability to enter more of the buildings strewn around the likes of Yanxia. I actually visited Aleport for the first time in ages due to the RDM quests taking me there and I was surprised by just how many of the buildings I could enter. Some of the settlements that have arrived as of 3.0 and 4.0 feel a lot more clinical and restrictive, unfortunately. For me it's not a matter about scale - because it'd be too much work to make the zones super large and with proper cities in each territory. It's a matter of accessibility.