>>535824419
It's not easy to define what makes good exploration.
My definition is going to be different from what a lot of people think is good exploration, because I'm hyper allergic to trial-and-error-based exploration. I like when games tell me how many treasure chests or special upgrade items I can find in a specific level (like pic related, from Ys 8, which has a metroidvania-esque map).
So in that regard, WW is already gone a long way to being a game with good exploration. The problem is that:
1. it's open world.
2. The most valuable rewards you find like Astrite are things to help you along as F2P player, and the other things you do get are shell credits, union points and upgrade items to very, very, very slowly power up your character. So it doesn't feel very rewarding (compared to, say, finding a rocket upgrade in Metroid that immediately adds an extra rocket to your ammo count).
Generally, metroidvania games are as far as I'm willing to tolerate in terms of level size before it goes into the territory of tedious exploration. And even then, some metroidvania games are better at this than others.
Some metroidvania games don't tell you how much of XYZ loot there is in a specific area, which realistically means that you're either gonna spend hours combing through these maps with a fine pick to ensure that you have everything, or (more likely) you just consult with a wiki to minimize frustration.

Some people are gonna completely disagree with me and tell me that any kind of markers that indicate where loot can be found is inherently bad design, but given the choice between WW's markers and something like Elden Ring giving you no help in the overworld (which essentially forces players to do perimeter sweeps in the very small chance they missed anything like a gaol or an entrance to a cave or a random NPC chilling out), I prefer the former.