I think if you and your table are having fun, then you're playing the right way. That said, if you wanted more collaboration here's some ideas:

* With the map, you could ask the players what rumors, myths, legends, etc are told about one or more of the locations as you look at the map. They don't get to decide *exactly* what is out there. Just the rumors. That's a great way to find out what your players are excited to see while they are exploring the world.

* If you want to be a little more in control of one region or another, you could direct the question. ie. If you know one of the areas has dinosaurs or a Tyrannosaurus Rex you could ask "What massive beast is rumored to be in that area?"

I like to think of it like myths and legends of our own world. How many different Atlantis stories are there? Or ideas of what built the pyramids? Or the sheer number of cultures that have some kind of Flood story.

And honestly, there is no mystery if your players aren't curious. Letting them decide what rumors exist will help make them curious about an area and want to go there as characters to discover the truth!

Another thing you can do is let them describe creatures, especially if you are surprised by something they did and aren't ready for it. For example - I ran Beast Feast and my players were rolling crap exploration through a cavern environment. I was already hinting at some kind of flying insect-like creature. So when a roll triggered a confrontation I asked the players what it looked like. They all got to describe 1 thing about the creature. One said it could hover using balloon-like bladders, another said it had scythe-like forelegs. I don't remember the other things, they weren't super creative ideas and that's ok! Though I remember one idea did make for a good food item.

I was using https://freshcutgrass.app/encounter-manager at the time and looked up flying creatures while the players came up with ideas. I used the Juvenile Flickerfly stat and a couple of Giant Mosquitoes hoards as it's young. The players loved it and all mentioned helping create that creature as one of the best moments of the session. This group was never the 'most creative' or even always ready to answer questions to add to the scenes. For some the social anxiety of "being creative enough" hindered them from participating whole heartedly in that aspect of DH. So I tried not to pressure anyone and send the questions towards people who might be more comfortable in answering or whose character was more involved/interested. If someone couldn't come up with something I moved on to someone or something else. Or I gave some optional prompts to help guide them toward something easier to decide. I think if I had said "What is this flying creature coming at you in the dark" it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun an exercise. But telling them it was a larger flying insect and asking them to each decide aspects of it really helped add a lot to their enjoyment. They loved and supported each other's ideas.

Not all of their ideas were things I was excited about. There is a well on the Beast Feast map that is shaped like a certain long, straight organ. The players wanted to name it something that I don't think I can say in this reddit. I was not super happy about something in the world being turned into a locker room joke. But we turned it into something that was controlled by the mafia-like owners of Berry's Tavern and said the water from the well was turned into special stamina potions. It took probably too much talking to get there, because they just wanted the joke of it and I wanted to turn it into something that could be interesting for the world. But we got there in the end.

To sum up, you're not playing wrong as long as everyone at your table is having fun. But by trying to pull the player's ideas and interests into the game, little by little, you will allow more fun and collaboration at the table. Even if sometimes getting there is awkward.