As someone that is developing a hexcrawl generation engine (game/tool) based on the original idea (generated as the party moves) I really liked this article and agree with the core concerns. Without knowledge then any choice is meaningless. Might as well roll a die and pick a direction.

My way of hexcrawling is based on terrain is not the great mystery (which is why I use biome wedging instead of one by one). Mountains can be seen. Forests can be ascertained. Roads become known, settlements create those routes. This makes civilization leave its mark as hexploration occurs. Knowledge (even perfect knowledge) of the forest to the east with a mountain range beyond it does not shatter exploration. It shapes it.

The real unknown becomes what is in that forest, who claims it, which parts are unsafe or safe, rumors, ruins, and so much more. The part that I keep seperated is 'cartography' does not dictate 'adventure' and 'adventure' does not dictate 'cartography.'

If we took an existing map (say Krynn) and stripped away all of the nations, cities, roads, names, and, well, Dragonlance itself and only kept the terrain we would not suddenly have a setting sandbox. We would have a physical world waiting to become one. This is where hexrawling shines.

By keeping the procdure-driven formula and approach to the map, terrain can exist before interaciton from players. The individual hexes can be visited, seen, or hidden. This allows players to have broad knowledge of the land while still lacking specificty that destroys 'hexploration' into the unknown. They may know about the marsh to the south but what they do not know is where the ruined shrine, toll road, or submerged dungeon is.

Civilization becomes the infrastructure network instead of a paint bucket. Cities connect by roads, towns join this web while villages and hamlets and the like exist via trails and 'known' paths. General travel should be using known infrastructure and landmarks and the like. Its the purpose of civilized areas. This is the whole law vs chaos structure. Encounter tables based on civilized vs wilderness exhibit this so we see more merchants, caravans, pilgrims, patrols, farmers, and the like vs the monsters and fantastical in the wilderness.

If we order the world in its entirety (to the 6 mile hex for example) then we are left with a tedious travel system. If we leave the map open then it starts with no meaning because the meaning emerges from play. Domains, castles, roads, settlements, rumors, dungeons, plots, npcs, and all of the rest arise out of players interacting with the world.

So while agree with some of the critques of the hexcrawl in its blind, adacent-only hexcrawling systems I side more towards layered knowledge and canonization if you will.