The MSN article seems to be referring to the single player campaign when talking about open world.
Battlefield Bad Company 1 had an open world single player campaign which I enjoyed.
Open world multiplayer doesn't strike me as something that would work well outside of Battle Royale.
For classic multiplayer modes like conquest and breakthrough. Big maps turn into walking simulators that are too slow pace with long sight lines. This results in frustrating gameplay where players get sniped while trying to run across wide open fields towards the objective.
Eventually players get tired of getting sniped while running across wide open fields towards the objective and go play another game that's more fun and less frustrating.