any game involving exploration that presents itself in such a way that you can easily encounter all of it is inescapably boring
I saw that tweet yesterday and immediately thought of 100RTBD. Metroidvanias don't shine if everything is presented to you on the critical path. There needs to be some out-of-the-way type discovery for it to feel meaningful. Backtracking, pushing through tough fights or solving difficult puzzles are ways to make content harder to reach and by consequence, making sure some people will never see it.
100RTBD is full of that stuff. As of right now, I'm pretty sure that the 'main' content in the game will be about 30% of the final product and the whole other 70% will be optional content. I don't mind making content for a lesser percentage (of my already low) playerbase, actually I tend to make the optional content before the critical path, but that's just how I roll!
Time spent on the project so far: 560 hours
Currently working on: Continuing the story