Okay hear me out…
I’ve been wondering recently why I only really ride Watopia, and not the other maps. I was an avid badge collector, but I’ve hardly touched the new Makuri islands.
It occurred to me that the other maps are more tightly drawn and littered with lots of fake people, where almost everyone on Watopia are real people either running or cycling, so it got me thinking… I wonder if the presents of knowingly fake avatars ruins the immersion?
Can’t say I’ve noticed the avatar being and issue but like most people watopia is my favourite.
I like some of the other worlds specifically for racing but for general riding watopia wins by far. Hard to say way i guess it feels a lot more like a nice sunny (some of the time) holiday destination that i would ride in real life. Parts of France do have some what similar feel but there is not enough roads to make it a regular favourite.
I think that London was the first world to get pedestrians and even then only in the city bit, not on Box Hill - believe Richmond didn’t get them on it’s original release, only after its refresh a few years ago.
I guess that was because Zwift thought that having a real city course without people walking or standing around in it would look weird and empty, like some sort of strange post-apocalypse world where only cyclists survived for some reason? Of course this was all pre-Covid and now since having actually cycled round an empty London in real life, I know exactly how odd this can feel!
Dunno, for me it’s the unbelievable civil engineering (why would anyone build something like that…) that breaks the immersion all the time in the fake worlds (Watopia, France, Makuri)…
The worst bit for me is the added sound effects/cheering, especially in France (i’m looking at you cow bell!), but headphones gets around that problem!
Maybe it is that the fake people don’t move like real people?
But then again, dinosaurs are not something one sees in real life, either.
And roads that go right through active volcanos? 
I prefer to see people as it makes the scene more realistic. the desert town in fuego flats looks wierd without any people (to me anyway).