Depends on your definition of “direct.”

I’ve played around 1k hours of Europa Universalis IV and I’ve never completed a campaign (gotten to the last year in the game), because I find I’ve completed my goals about halfway or two thirds of the way through the time line. The same goes for most Civ games, I just quit and restart once I know I’ve won.

I imagine Elden Ring is similar for many people, they play a character for a couple dozen hours and restart with a new character.