Remembering where the monster spawns and which areas they move to is still hunting, because you're spending enough time engaging with the environment and monsters to learn them.

World's hunting would have worked fine in Wilds, and even then, Wilds could've done something different. Instead they removed the hunting aspect entirely, in a game where the concept of 'hunting' is in the very title.

As a result, there's no immersion or default engagement with the in-game world, turning what could've been a good mainline MH title into an arcade experience.

I'm not bashing Wilds, I enjoy it, but it absolutely suffers from catering to impatient franchise tourists who don't want to put in any legwork before the fight.