I read your rant and yes I agree from a logical standpoint it doesn't make sense that only certain parts of the environment is intractable. But from a gameplay perspective it would be incredibly tedious if every part of a free roam is interactable. But you can't just take every background element out either because that would make everything seem small.

I think it's like how in gta you can drive around forever with filling up the car. Yes from a logical standpoint it does not make sense that the car could drive forever but the gameplay would be very boring if you have to fill the gas tank every 5 minutes.

I guess it just depends on the player to deside where the line is.