That an old Volvo 740 estate in your avatar?

It's a Volvo Estate, not sure on which model.

That is something (to a certain extedn) I really like about modern games. Good in-game hints make the manual redundant. And I hate manuals, because they usually spoil way to much.

Also, having a quest marker leading you to the quest giver is a good thing imo. There is not fun searching through a town for fifteen minutes just to get your 15 pieces of gold. Especially if they are all looking the same (looking at you, Daggerfall). Those are necessary improvements, as 20 years ago your quest giver (if there even was one) was at a fixed location.

And the non-interactive environments were always non-interactive. But the simple stone wall of the past is now decorated with a lot of stuff looks nice. But it still is just a wall. That is also why those "glowing things" are important in modern games. Searching hours in each building just to find the one book that isn't a graphical asset is also not why I play games.