A lot of devs have unnecessarily made their games "sandboxy" when it could've just been kept as a visual novel.
Coders have got to eat too I suppose...
i think sandbox can work when done right, and its not even that hard, the problem is that, they try to make some adventure sierra/lucas art logic jump and assume everyone else is able of moonlogic.
there have been games with sandbox done well, others are not as sandboxy but still offer enough freedom to feel like its better as is. case in point something unlimited and rogue like, both games have limited sandbox, that have alot of space to develop more and become better, but the devs just want the easy way out instead so they do the bare minimum.
the funny thing is, one of the best visual novels of all time, true love, was a sandbox game, and it was amazing because of that, instead of despite it. of course, i wasnt a fan of its time system, since it limited your romance options, and because the game heavily punished cheating, as 2 of the main girls would hate you if you slept with both(and the worst part was, both had ntr routes, with one falling for the asshole, and the other getting kidnapped and raped) if you didnt do their stories right.