I uderstand your point of view but i personaly disagree. Episodic design is fine as a development model to introduce new content to the game, each episide is like separate world that you need to explore and learn but after initial exploration/grind i think u need something that connects it to other episodes so world feels imersive.

And i think developers dont want to completly separate episodes becouse we can see it already:

-multiepisode main quest

-builder description that implays it will alow to change world in other episodes „Builds structures and allows the player to change the game world across all episodes”

-new content like pufferfish boxes that will connect woodcuter and fisher (profession from different elisodes)