Kay

if a game is afraid to have you experience its content twice, why should I want to experience it once

Hard agree. Backtracking is exactly as good or bad as the game's movement, level designs, and combat with regular enemies (where applicable).

If those are the core of your game, then backtracking is just "playing the game", and fast travel is just artificially shortening the game.

if the game makes it clear that I have to backtrack (whether thru an objective update, signposting, or just organic level design), no problem

if it expects me to know that with no real indication, then there's a problem

the sign that i tap in every single game design discourse is "all game design is contextual". no element of game design is neither an objective good or an objective bad, if something doesn't work it's because you did a bad job. from lives systems, to procedural generation, to parrying, and now backtracking.

i think people who say "(x) is bad game design" are usually not game designers, or are people who are very bad at game design.

Content Brain is a real and serious affliction and we must do everything in our power to stop its spread

that attitude makes it really hard to make arcade-style games too! so many people think those games just have 30 minutes of "content", and it can be difficult to convince them that it's worth playing them for much longer than that.

Few things grind my gears like people saying "game concept/mechanic? In current year?!" as if a concept can go bad. Often alongside some sort of feigned objectivity, like "turn-based combat only existed because of hardware limitations" or "lives systems only existed to steal your money in arcades". Like you say, backtracking, like so many things, can be additive rather than just a way to extend game time.

You had me up until the last line, Kay, what the fuck

had good results reheating french fries in a frying pan, just as an aside.

some backtracking can be ok, good even, but some games... and then again... fast traveling can be neat when there might still be encounters. and just teleporting from one place to another can also be nice... its the bigger picture really that weighs in on whether or not this instance of that mechanic was still enjoyable or not

Reheat fries on a dry skillet over medium heat.