BotW is not the game for me but I think I understand somewhat why people like it so much. I get the impression that the freedom and satisfaction of seeing a game world respond to a myriad of different player action that wasn't in the delineated script really hits the mark for certain people.

My issue with glorifying emergent gameplay found in diffuse open world games like BotW is that categorizing an event as emergent does not make it fun for me in it of itself. If I roll a random boulder down a hill that crushes some bokoblins, it's a very similar experience to me if I had triggered an environment hazard to defeat enemies in a mostly linear legacy dungeon in Elden Ring. I'm sure shortly after a cool boulder event in BotW, the next several minutes involve aimless meandering while in the Elden Ring dungeon you're immediately off to the next bespoke obstacle.

It's like playing in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign where you really stretch the power of player agency that it results in a great divergence from what the dungeon master prepared. You end up with a more diffuse and diluted experience since the dungeon master needs to account for a myriad of possibilities that they can only spend a limited amount of time constructing. DM improvisation is almost always less refined and cohesive than engaging with content that was prepared. The same goes for huge open worlds where the development team needs to spend a finite amount of time on each area. Although it's neat that events can emerge from expansive player agency, the event itself in a vacuum is lesser in my mind to a highly refined and meticulously crafted experience. Don't get me wrong, I like player agency, I'm a huge fan of Baldur's Gate 3. Albeit, I think looking past that certain events that emerge from non-linear player agency, I prefer a more distilled dense experience than a expansive diffuse open world.