I think sandbox and VNs each have their own appeal and I actively play both. Since VNs don’t have anything besides a story, they focus there to try and make it good. Sandbox has a lot more open ability so the dev might spend less time on story. I think there are too many sandbox games where the story is copy and pasted so people get annoyed with that. In my opinion, a well made sandbox is better than a well made VN, but a poorly made sandbox is worse than a poorly made VN