I've been in the industry for a while and can tell a couple of things about the worries of developers and level designers.
Saving space and memory are two biggies, specially for games released on consoles, so if there is no reason for something to BE there, it won't.
Did you ever try to look past the limits of Cyrodill in Oblivion and found it to be surrounded by unclimbable mountains that you quickly slipped down of? or unswimable distances of water?
If you are not meant to GO somewhere, it most likely wont be there, you might fit in a couple of mountains in the middle of the continent even if you should not go there just in case, but an entire distant province?? come on, you fog that out or make sure the player will never get to look in that direction.
So I'm not buying the "they are never going to be used" possibility.
Saving space and memory are two biggies, specially for games released on consoles, so if there is no reason for something to BE there, it won't.
Did you ever try to look past the limits of Cyrodill in Oblivion and found it to be surrounded by unclimbable mountains that you quickly slipped down of? or unswimable distances of water?
If you are not meant to GO somewhere, it most likely wont be there, you might fit in a couple of mountains in the middle of the continent even if you should not go there just in case, but an entire distant province?? come on, you fog that out or make sure the player will never get to look in that direction.
So I'm not buying the "they are never going to be used" possibility.