I admit that I’m with Casey G. (filthy  D&Dplaying murderhoboists that we are) at raising an eyebrow at the idea that RPGs do Travel poorly.

Every RPG I’ve ever played with has been – at least partially but usually almost entirely – about Exploration, Discovery and Wonder – all the things that Traveling is, at its best. I think there’s a model of linear point-crawling Go from A to B to C in objectives and maybe locations and the lack of in-between fidelity there that you might be critiquing, but what in-between fidelity would there be beyond tinier A, Bs and Cs?

Experience Points may be unsatisfyingly abstract as a This Changes A Person Like Travel Does metric; I absolutely agree with your quote that progressiveness and mind-expanse is directly attributable to exposure, challenge & curiosity, but, man… those are things that tabletop roleplaying does woooooonderfully, at least through the mindscapes of our shared imaginations and possible imagined interactions