This is actually a very serious problem that needs rectifying. I have always said the "Minimap" is ruining gaming, and it has.. and continues to do so. Mainly because, as Yahtzee said, you spend the majority of your time gluing your eyes to a 4-square inch circle instead of playing.
When it's not the "Minimap" it's the stupid arrows. The biggest offender for this, in my opinion, is Skyrim. Why Skyrim? Well, because Skyrim already has all the resources in place that would be necessary to guide the players through meta-exploration or adventure. I've known no other game that puts in so many useless world objects, or hundreds of readable books.
What happens when you read a book in Skyrim, detailing a lost treasure begging to be found? It puts a "quest marker" in your hud when you close that book. Ugh. Instead, the path should be explained in the story, by either simple instruction, all the way to a complex adventure that chains together a volume of books in a series to complete the journey for your reward. You know, adventure game stuff. It's not possible to just turn off the relevant hud features and quest by longhand, because there is no alternative. Lazy. I haven't decided if it's Bethesda being lazy, or development time constraints.. or they fear the average player will scoff at having to be an active player, thus less sales and such. I fear it is the latter...
Remember what Red Dead Redemption did with the treasure maps? Very simple. They showed you a small hand-drawn map displaying landmarks. Instead of looking at the hud, or stupid minimap, you spent the majority of that time scanning the beautiful horizon and countryside that was beautifully drawn and meticulously detailed. That was the only way to complete the treasure tasks, no waypoints. Unless of course you wiki'd it, you pussy.