One of my favorite aspects of Morrowind was getting written/spoken instructions in the writing/voice of a character that related to some sort of question or job. You had to then go explore what it meant to fulfill this request.
What was awful in Skyrim was how often the character told you what to expect, then the game would just guide you through to some object that needed acquired. I don't care about fulfilling an npc's fetch quest. I care about exploration, investigation, discovery, and problem solving. Give me that, and give me the wonderful writing in character to a particular npc that fills out the game world. That's a realized rpg world. Not the sort mechanical rote that has sadly become common. The waypoint compass is just the realization of that rote mechanic. It doesn't mean the deeper planning ins't there, but it often does. It circumvents the need for richer quest design.