I just realized my favorite fantasy worlds all share the same tiny detail and now I cant stop noticing it

I was reorganizing my bookshelf yesterday and pulled out an old battered paperback I had not opened in years. While flipping through it I saw a sketch of the main city and suddenly noticed something I had never paid attention to before. The streets were slightly curved, almost like the whole place had grown organically instead of being planned. I put it back and grabbed two completely different books and both of their maps had that same feeling of cities that had grown like vines instead of grids. And it hit me that every fantasy world that truly lives in my head seems to have this quality.

It is not about realism for me. I know many real world cities are planned or geometric. But in fantasy, when a city looks like it has been built layer over layer by people who did not fully agree on anything, it feels alive. I love when the streets bend around some ancient temple no one remembers, or a canal splits for no logical reason except that someone a thousand years ago insisted on it. Suddenly the whole setting feels older than the characters. It gives me that delicious sense that the world existed long before page one and will continue long after the last chapter ends.
I think that is why hyper precise worldbuilding sometimes leaves me cold. When everything is explained I start to feel like I am reading a blueprint instead of a place. But when a world has weird corners that dont fit together perfectly, a staircase that goes nowhere, a quarter of the city no map ever shows in full, it feels more true. Like a real world that would not bother explaining itself to outsiders.

Anyway now I am walking around noticing that I even prefer video game maps with messy edges. Maybe I just love the idea that magic is not only in spells and dragons but also in old crooked streets built for reasons long forgotten.