The best games which feature an open world and the best games for their open world are a very different list, imo.
For example, the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk share a really awesome story-based rpg that happens to play in an open world but I don’t necessarily believe their open world is among the best in the industry.
I’d probably have to say that the Witcher 3 is my favorite game which features an open world and my favorite open world in any game has got to be Terraria. You could argue it’s a different class of game, but I feel that the tendency the game has to force you to explore and then introduce new stuff to the world that allows you to re-explore the same places is a really excellent take on the open world formula. Terraria really has very excellent exploration and reexploration which I think are the hallmarks of open world games. Not just inviting you to get to know the world, but changing it over time and asking you to get to know it again.
This seems like a weird decision. The battle pass and substantial, frequent, interesting content updates coexisted for years and I can’t help but feel this bodes poorly for the effect TI will have each year.
BUTTT it seems like the game itself will receive more love so who knows maybe it’ll work out.