This type of "creative games" lets users combine basic building blocks in the same way a word processor application allows to write entire books by combining a a limited set of characters. The limitations of strictly linear games like Last of Us are not because of technological restrictions but because it's hard to tell a cinematic story while still giving the user complete freedom.
(Of course making it performant, not rendering/“simulating” everything and the like is exceedingly hard, but it is true that it is more of a “closed world” as opposed to some other areas of software development.)