I always wondered why so many SNES games started using multiple world maps, like if they were able to put a lot more story in the game, but their world maps could only be so large without overloading the system RAM...

While some games made it awesome, I suspect developers would have rather preferred to just tell one awesome story over a large world map.

I voted for 1, although I think RPGs may have evolved past the need for any world map at all. Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII did such an awesome job of making every area to scale, which opens up a lot of possibilities for designers to incentivize exploration and hide away little secrets.