Would not find better words myself. By the way... this forum is a supernova of verbal confrontations between Storytelling and Sandbox enthusiasts.To be honest, I feel that way with all Sandbox type games. In my opinion, the "Soul" of a Sandbox game tends to be what you give it. For example, I assign all sorts of roleplay reasons to why my character does things. Right now for example, I am about as perfectly positioned to form my Kingdom as you could be. I have 2 Cities and 4 castles all clustered in a near perfect position, however, my current liege hasn't given me a reason to tell him to screw up and start my own Kingdom so from a roleplay perspective I am prevented form doing this. To put it simple, you have to create my own story or "Soul" in a Sandbox and I don't think everyone is capable of doing that.
P.S. I tried Valheim on single player recently...and however i very much like this game from esthetic point of view and possibilities of shaping the reality - the world itself seems empty of non-hostile creatures and soulless in a way descirbed in this thread. Simply lacks NPCs. Bannerlord is not that bad compared to Valheim imo. You have lords, their own agenda, settlement inhabitants with their quests, bandits, could be worse.. It is however far away from Rimworld - Social top of any sandbox game i have ever played before.