I voted yes, especially for wilderness areas.
I've been replaying bg2 and although the game is massive, many times it doesn't feel that way. And I think the problem is that world feels small because every area is linked to a quest. If you want to get to Umar Hills, you just go directly there. You don't have to explore and travel through several wilderness areas to get there like in bg1. I think this ends up making the world feel much smaller even if activities/quests are densely packed into the game. I really hope this doesn't happen to PE!