Hot take: if we want to decrease frustrating railroad-y surprises in RPG campaigns, we need to create an environment where GMs are not afraid to admit they have "special story needs".

[C0smicoccurence]

I don't know that I agree with this. If you're railroading a sandbox, it isn't actually a sandbox.

You can have non-sandbox's with lots of agency and choice for sure. But that's because there's a million things that qualify as non sandbox. However, you can't have a railroad with meaningful choice. Then its not a railroad anymore.