It's like the game is actively aware of when you might start having fun and wanting to explore, and it goes out of its way to stop you
Comms message telling you where you need to go. Forcing you to come back to the base and then head back out (long ass loading sequence each time)
Explicitly telling you where to go after you got your upgrade is a choice, but it also makes sense when there's a big dumb overworld that connects the locations. There's no real shortcuts between the locations
I don't think sequence breaking is even a thing in this game. You can't really go anywhere and see anything off the intended path in any meaningful way
Again, decent single player adventure game with some action. As a Metroid game, it's bad