What's a "Moral Compass Cricket Thingy"?

[Moonface]

Exactly that reason, yes. I like there being, you know, stuff to do. It's the big problem I have with games like Minecraft. They just drop you in a place and drunkenly say "Here's a stick; go build stuff." And while, yes, Minecraft is technically a bad example because there is an end goal (go kill the Ender Dragon), let's be honest, who's really doing that outside of speedrunners?

I'd say Minecraft used to be a bad example since a truly blind player wouldn't even know the Ender Dragon exists, nor that the Nether exists or even most crafting recipes so the game practically required using a Wiki to actually play it beyond just "go dig things up". It has gotten better though by adding in Advancements which are designed to guide players with objectives focused on game progression, however I can't say whether they actually allow more people to get to the end goal because despite the hundreds of hours I've put into the game I have never fought the Ender Dragon.

Not that I expect you to look in the sense of playing it, but have you ever looked at Crash Team Racing? That game has an Adventure Mode very similar to DKR so it would've probably been up your alley if you'd been aware of it at a time when you'd have cared to play another racer similar to DKR. Then there's also games like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed that have a campaign mode similar to things like Burnout (to use an example I know you've played an entry in). Thinking about it while writing this, Mario Kart is the only racing game I can think of that has absolutely no form of campaign in it whatsoever and just leaves the player to do whatever really.