I'm not sure about that. Sandbox philosophy is providing an open space, throwing in toys and letting things happen. Levels designed to have particular routes, cross-points and angles require more complexity. Opening things up and adding more things to do became technically achievable and a lot easier, at least compared to designing a good, balanced 3d maze.
The same thing happened with 3d platform control. Mario 64 featured three dimension jumps and punches, which required more spatial reasoning and accurate hit detection. When the wide width spin attack was introduced, it went around those challenges and offered an easier answer to landing on and dealing with enemies in 3d space. Now even Mario uses it, but make no mistake, its a simpler, easier answer. It requires less accurate hit detection and less spatial reasoning. Get near it, spin it, kill it.