I Agree with this, too open is not always better for sure, Souls is a great balance.Dark Souls seems to be the best combination of the two in my book. The world is open in the sense that there's like 8 possible first bosses and you can explore all over in any order, but it's linear in that the actual areas themselves are laid out in a very measured and deliberate way that players have to traverse.
When the world is too open I miss good level design, and when it's too linear I miss the freedom and authenticity of open worlds, so that's my favorite way to do it.