The Outer Wilds might be the kind of games you're looking for.
And if you are open to a more linear structure there is FPS like bioshock which have amazing world building and have very light RPG elements.
There is also the "walking simulator" genre, with games like firewatch, gone home or SOMA. But it's also quite linear.
"Gamers Nexus, on the other hand, thinks the issue is more deep rooted and originates from a foundry-level fault."
That's a bit annoying to see GN so grossly misquoted when Steve spends half the run time of the video explaining that they are not sure of anything at this point.