It's really hard to say exactly how this will land with fans. The article mentions using kishōtenketsu in the game design of the Grand Prix mode, "now players have to drive to their next race, instead of being automatically transported", and the wiki page for kishōtenketsu mentions use of that concept in game design of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World, both well received with 97 and 93 Metacritic scores respectively.

I'm sure Nintendo has put a lot of thought and effort into this. But personally I feel like most open worlds feel empty and void to me after a few hours. I didn’t play it, but that seemed to be a major complaint with the latest Pokemon game.