I feel like you're painting "hyper-realism" to the extreme to make the point the other person was making. Hyper-realism in the sense that the actual level design follows "realistic" designs doesn't work in games because the actual world isn't particularly interesting nor does it lend itself to give good directions to the player. However you can design the levels in a way that, from the perspective of art design, is realistic but would make no sense in the actual world. So the way you're presenting "hyper-realistic cinematic" games doesn't really happen in games either because levels/worlds are designed to be played not to fulfill a real world purpose. For example games tend to make corridors and staircases larger than they would be in the real world, because if you make them like they actually are they might feel even claustrophobic and if you have something like a coop game you'd have to walk pretty much single file through those places. So the concept of approximating the real world as convincingly as possible isn't what games do. What "hyper-realistic" games do is approximate the aesthetic of the real world as convincingly as possible.

And that's why painting things bright yellow is egregious and worse than some PS1 games is because that does not fit the real world aesthetic. We do paint some things in the world a specific color to indicate specific things but we generally don't use bright yellow for directions. What the other person (and me) is arguing for is exactly what you've already brought up.

Intentional level design that draws focus to interactibles is usually more subtle, but is also not cost-free, as things that are unnaturally arranged can be its own kind of immersion breaking.

Except for the fact that is can easily be subtle and not immesion breaking. I was originally going to Elden Ring as the example but I thought my point would come across better with BotW but we're going back to Elden Ring. I'm going to use Stormveil castle as the example. After you beat Margit (who guards the entrance to Stormveil) the way in isn't straightforward. The front gate is closed and you need to find another way in. How does FROM direct the player? The way is right next to the gate, on the left. In case you don't instantly spot it the nearby grace is set in a way so that if you reset at the grace it literally points the camera at the gate and the door. If you go away and teleport back to that grace you'd have to be legally blind to not see the way forward. If you go through the door the game gives you a clear notice that there's an NPC you cannot see when you enter. Another thing the game does is that even before going through the door you see the hole in the wall which is the way forward. The NPC also tells you to go that way so again the game is very deliberate in where you're supposed to go without putting up huge signs "GO HERE". Another point I want to bring up is here. As you can see there's a place to drop down and there's no clear way forward. You can drop down and go left, you can drop down and go right or you can right up. Doesn't matter which way you go because you will always end up at the site of grace. The next part is very subtle but also very obvious. You might not even notice it unless pointed out but the torches indicate the way forward. When you reach the mini-boss and you kill it you need to find the key to the door which is in a chest. As you can, the chest is easily visible even if clutter is in the way. I could write an essay about all the subtle hints built into Stormveil with the clear purpose of directing the player where it needs to go, to the final boss of Stormveil. I could write another paragraph about all the subtle hints the game gives about all the little nooks and crannies I've overlooked but the person in the video notices and go through. But if you've played Elden Ring then you know that everything I've described is so subtle and unnoticeable that nothing about it is immersion breaking. You have to be deliberately analyze the scene to really spot them. But all of it works on a subconscious level. You just know where to go without actually knowing where you're going or are supposed to go.

Exactly what I was about to say. The markers in Mirror's Edge are less "Go here dipshit" and more "Here's an option for maintaining flow state". Because of that, it feels more like an intuitive instinct manifesting in color. And in a lot of the more open areas you don't always even need to follow it.

I did play the Witcher without a minimap and it was excellent. It was a well designed game with good landmarks, good geographic flow and useful dialogue that communicated through the game world and characters itself.

Other games aren’t as well designed and are literally impossible to play with the minimap disabled.

And for sure, I hate dumb fetch quests as much as anyone, but having meta-game direction techniques like highlighting and minimaps/compasses makes it far easier for designers to get away with poorly designed dumb quests of zero consequence because at no point do you ever need to think about what you’re doing.