FATEs, for better or worse, have set a certain precedent for the use of open-world space through repeatable casual combat content.

How or what could they have been to provide more to the open world as a repeatable or reiterative content type?

(I'll post my own ideas eventually, if there's actual interest in this topic, as evidenced by a couple pages of posts or so, but this is mostly just to gather opinions and ideas of what could have been more so than to discuss just any one such set.)