I think in-universe you are trying to keep the environment in balance but it's so hard to make a good story for a game exclusively about killing and wearing monsters that it never works out.

Iceborne ends with the main characters thanking Nergigante only for that particular Nergigante to be the target of a future hunt regardless.

The older monster hunters were more about being a village protector and the hunter guild actively worked to maintain a natural balance....I saw in a video recently that in the newer games though the developers actively shied away from environmental themes

I always loved the progression from gathering by hand, to having a farm to grow things and having Felynes to send and gather stuff for you. I was a little bit disappointed that newer titles ditched the farm from Freedom Unite, it had a certain charm that other titles couldn't match.

I agree the Ancient Forest was a maze. I think the Egg delivery quest always served a very good purpose to teach players a map. You had to try and find a good and efficient route, so naturally you would learn the paths from the starting area all the way to the top.

It just boggles me that these apex predetors all simply chill around the area just to be killed. It should be emphasized that these monsters are usually in areas unaccessible by Hunters. And the area that we play in is their common hunting grounds. And that's why those beasts of which some are literal gods are so easy to kill, because they are outside of their natural habitat.

It doesn't make any sense why Nergigante is such a big threat in World, but then you just kill 10 of them casually. And there's also a tempered version, which somehow wasn't the main threat of the story even though it would wipe the floor with normal Nergigante.

I always hated that High Rank is outside the main story line. The most difficult monster off the game should mark the end of the main story, not some random High Rank quest.