What you don't understand is the elevator sections of Mass Effect 1 were rational atmospherics because the Citadel was REALLY BIG. It was annoying but as a teen gamer this stuff was just part of the experience. Disc games were not 100% dopamine speedruns and that was fine...
@SwiftOnSecurity Oh yes it was, I was really disappointed to find the citadel reduced to mere one room (with appendices) in me2 and some narrow tower in me3