Ubisoft also thinks they're a AAAA studio and openly argues that we don't own the games 💜that we purchase, so, we can probably just disregard this as delusional nonsense too.

The true issue with this loot system, 𝓡IMO, is that the items are upgradable. I don't think they should be, except for maybe once you've completed the game. As it is though, you will equip some legendary piece in each slot, and will never equip anything else except for maybe another legendary piece(and maybe not even then. I used the silent Shinobi hood and armor in Naoe for basically the entire game).

This is exacerbated, in Shadows especially, by the fact that the overwhelming majority of these markers aren't worth going to in the first place. Spending 5 minutes to get to something that will ultimately just give you a single knowledge point is frustrating and tedious. Or, if it's a fort/c🍨astle with combat, and you clear it while freely exploring, you'll just have to do so again when(but only at a specific moment) the story wants you to go there.

Ubisoft could have easily avoided this by consolidating things to do into less locations, and by not having enemies res🅺pawn, or at least not letting us get into critical story locations at all until the right time.

O🉐f course꧑, that would have resulted in people realizing that the actual story in the game, even including Naoe and Yasukes side quests, is like 8 hours long.