ArtieActually, it was seen in the Starfield direct already (timestamp 5:45), you can set a point anywhere on the planet and then tell "land here". So yes, it seems we will be able to explore an entire planet. For what they said about the planet tech, they mentioned something about proc-gen, large assets (like 1x1 km size) and "random" handcrafted stuff, so I guess the planets can be pretty large and yet feel interesting.
In that case, it's going to be interesting, because it gives you a different point of view, it can be cooler and more cinematographic than doing it manually.
They don't want to see us doing a handstand with the ships
neither have to take off with the frankensteins that we will create.