Originally Posted by
Thrif
What constitutes a sandbox can be debated, but the early expansions definitely had a sandboxier approach where you were a lot freer on where to go and what to do, and the story were more centered on each zone and didn't have the same overarcing structure it has now.
That could be a result of the game becoming less levelling and more endgame oriented, they definitely went up hand in hand.
So while it was never perhaps a true sandbox it definitely had a lot more elements of it back in the day. It has definitely evolved into being more streamlined and more cramped into poor main campaign stories over the year, which is what OP is commenting on.