Then Dragon Dogma atleast tried to brind a group into 3d openworld and it was successfull, but again - who does atleast that? When any other AA or small studio tried to re-create Skyrim for some reason they met huge optiomalization problems and unability to fill their big world with something meaningfull in some reasonable time, even though Bethesda was able to do that with a small team of people, because they are very effecient, which is something some players don't want to see. Only Piranha bytes do the same they did always with factions. Then Sony took their own way with pure story based action games for consoles - you can say that about Days gone aswell. Then Witcher 3 was released then all the other claimed to be followers of Bioware or Witcher 3 - action game with a better story with cutscenes and some limited RPG mechanics supporting the given role of your character - like AC, Rockstars games or some AA like Greedfall. I know that it was always Bethesda territory, but over the years I would expect someone would atleast try, but the latest one was DAI and that was just Bioware version of open world - no mechanics at all, just combat and story and Ubisoft collectibles. I agree that those are better RPGs, but what is very frustrating for me is that nobody does that in 3d openworld and Skyrim became the only one which is atleast close to that. Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, Wasteland 2 & 3, Underrail, The Age of Decadence, Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Well, since you seem to want RPGs that don't fall into the action category…