Reading this, I came away feeling the only difference between this and other open world games is the density of activities. That is not particularly notable, particularly given we do not know how large the world will be.
I feel like modern game journalism is all about hyping up big titles pre-release just so they can be taken down in a negative review after release. Sensationalism sells... either way, or even both for the same title.
I came away thinking:
> Unless the Elden Ring demo condensed everything cool about the game into 1/12 the square mileage
Yes, that seems like the kind of thing you would do with a demo.