Opposite for me. Elden Ring is a beautiful, vast dead world filled with ancient ruins and monsters and treasure like hidden weapons, spells, ect, but not much else (incredible it may be). FF7 and Remake have their serious flaws but at least there are actual settlements and cities that bustle with life outside the dystopia that is Midgar. I wish more RPGs remembered that. FFXVI showing all these incredible cities, developers even citing FFXII as a major influence and then not never actually letting you explore any of them outside 3 tiny hamlets is absolute bullshit and an absolute bait and switch.
Hell I wish there were Soul-likes that had living settlements and towns outside the usual hub. I don't think "Soul-Likes" necessarily requires a setting that's grimdark and already dying or dead. That is my main criticism and problem with all soul-like games.
Zelda still manages to balance all that. Hell BotW is post-apocalypse but you still have several towns and villages (TotK being one of the biggest blown opportunities in the history of gaming for some reason not adding more towns and dungeons to top BotWs measly 4). Wind Waker also is post-apocalypse, though with very small settlements with the biggest being the underrated lively village of Windfall Island. Shit even Fallout has rebuilding nation-states like the NCR (outside the TV show but thats more Todd and Bethesda taking a blow torch to Obsidian/New Vegas canon).
Monster Hunter also manages this balance, looking at the variety of settlments and towns in what is still a very dangerous world.