The only thing wrong with the Hinterlands is that it was played by knuckleheads who couldn't grasp the concept of "Gee, I'm level 7 now so maybe I should move on from this level 1-6 zone instead of chasing every fetch quest on the map then whining about being bored."
That wasn't a game design problem, it was a brain-damaged player problem.
I'm usually one of those guys that when stuff opens up, I'll go exploring. Even if I'm under-leveled to the area I'm heading to or whatever (if it's hard-coded or somewhat hard-coded) - I'll go checking around.
If I can save, I'll save right before possible tough area...and if need be, I'll go back to where I need to if the area I want to explore is wrecking me.
Kind of learned the hard-way, from games like Gothic 1 & 2 and Divinity 2 (before DKS upgrade).
But yeah, Hinterlands for DA:I and the first planet on ME:A - yep, you can get stuck there, if you don't exit ASAP. Usually, if a game opens up, it's doing it for a reason: so, yeah, go explore!
EDIT:
Well that is some crazy news of the week regarding Cyberpunk. That affects a lot of people's PC hardware purchasing decisions over 2020 as well.
Good. Maybe this can make it easier for me to try to hold off longer with buying or building a new desktop.
About Cyberpunk's delay, I think they're trying to avoid FF7 Remake's release and gamers putting in a ton of time to play that...which pretty much every game should be doing right now. Why even try competing w/ that monster, if you don't need to?