If you could trade a lot of the vertical exploration elements for more role playing elements would you?

If I had to guess, a lot of budget went into parkour and vertical level design to to accommodate it.
Would you prefer if the world were more flat but a lot more roleplaying elements/systems existed (thieving, more npc dialogue, more physical world interactions) akin to Pillars of Eternity (with the exception of some dunegons/caves maybe)?

Ideally we'd have both, with thievery type classes being able to parkour and maybe get to some places other character classes couldn't, like maybe the roof of a house to break in.

Curious on everyone's opinion.