explanation@jeder flight was only added in heavensward, so they were just trying to get people to unlock it by making the maps EXTREMELY inconvenient to navigate
re: explanation@jeder i dont even mean the size (that's just the fact they werent ported over from 1.0 where each region was one large map rather than half a dozen zones)
the actual map geometry is very fucking annoying, and aetherytes are placed in very awkward positions