Along with some of the already posted stuff the shrinking world and story lines. The earlier lands felt large and spread out. To some degree with HW and larger degree with SB the lands are small enough you can see from one end to the other even without flight. Heck even Eureka Anemos feels larger with the twists and turns. I get the feeling SE has determined the main story line costs too much and have decided to go cheap with cut and paste stuff like Eureka and deep dungeons.