I have a friend that only teleports when its absolutely necessary. Otherwise he walks/rides there. In the past we often did some treasure maps together and we did either have to wait on him or travel along side him. It was boring. Doing a couple of maps was taking so long and its especially frustrating if no portal spawned...

My fun in this game would drop big time if that was how we would have to travel all the time. The first time exploring a map also does not have flying and you need to unlock the aetherytes. At that time its at least a bit fun because everything is new. But its stops being new quite fast.

In the end nothing stops you from doing the "no teleport / no flying" yourself. Just like my friend does. Just dont use it.