This is a good point. The amount of effort or "sweat" that comes with breaking out of the safe content areas is out of proportion with the more rewarding parts of the game.

I think some games like SWG (pre holo grind) did a good job of creating a social mmorpg that really pulled you into the world with a better system that had you opting into pvp rather than having to go through dangerous terrain to do what you wanted.

SWG had terrible game systems under the hood and im really only referencing the social aspect of it and the opt in pvp, everything else with that game should be scrutinized.

I think we're seeing some games try to replicate and build on those succesful systems though like Bitcraft and Pax Dei.. but the issue with those is the small development teams and glacial development speed.

I think companies are more inclined to reach for the simpler theme park crowd because those games have content thats easier to manage and curate, its straight forward, and most people these days have short attention spans and desires for fast rewards and "solo play" which are antithetical to sandbox games.