I think some of it overlooks the problem with the goal-oriented structure the 3D Marios had. With the collectibles being a star and forcing you to exit the level, that's just set up to have repetitive sequences when you enter the level. Odyssey did what 3D Marios should've done earlier, by putting all collectibles in one level and let you continue with the level in some cases rather than have you constantly revisit those levels. Super Mario 64 and Sunshine do have a mission structure where you can collect Star no 8 before Star no 2, and some missions are drastically different from one another like Super Mario 64 DS having loose Chain Chomps for its Silver Stars, but I don't think there's enough of that being done to justify that being used for the entire game. While earlier levels like Bob-omb Battlefield, Jolly Roger Bay, and Chill Mountain introduce some variation of the same level (but not much), later levels like Lethal Lava Land, Snow Man's Land, Wet Dry World (barring maybe the first mission if I recall correctly?), and Shifting Sand Lands don't do much with their missions; all missions look practically the same except for star locations.
Galaxy and Galaxy 2 kinda adopted the mission structures better, at least when levels are better designed to take advantage of missions, since there's more flexibility in changing the planetoids you need to visit, though that's not perfect as some galaxies adopt a less linear structure like Beach Bowl or Star Shine and gets the same problem of repetitive re-entering the levels and doing the same things until you reach a new part of the mission. Galaxy and Galaxy 2 can come off as trying to do two different things, which has it lose some focus on what it wants to be, but I think the mission-based planet 1-planet 2 railroad structure ends up conflicting with the entire idea of alien-space-exploration.
