The boxed set is, in essence, an expanded version of the "real", original Wilderlands setting as released in the 1970s. It provides eighteen large hex maps with assigned, but loosely described encounters. The "campaign hexagon system", as it is called, is a good method for treating imaginary space, and in an alternate reality, it would be the standard way we treat game settings (as opposed to a macro description as in Greyhawk, Glorantha and others).
The box is definitely not for everyone. However, I have to outright reject the following statement:
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Again, it sounds like a great resources for the GM in a time crunch or for the GM who likes to run thing "by the book, but for a GM who wants to create his own towns, encounters, etc - well, it seems like it would be a rather poor investment for many different reasons.
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Since the setting is "wide" rather than "deep", and most detailed settlements, fortifications, lairs, ruins, islands and other encounters are described loosely instead of in minute detail, it is
most definitely not a setting for DMs who like to run things "by the book", because "by the book" is a collection of loose ideas and nothing more. It isn't any more "canonical" than early Greyhawk's thin pamphlets with the one-paragraph country descriptions. It is a setting for those DMs who like to take short ideas and develop them into actual game content. It is, for instance, ideal for a DM who likes to improvise a lot - there is enough to spur the imagination, but not enough to overregulate it. As a result, and judging by evidence seen on the Necromancer Games forums, several divergent interpretations of the setting exist, as Rob has written.
Naturally, none of this means you are necessarily well served by the boxed set - indeed, the Player's Guide may be better for some DMs. But calling the Wilderlands a "by the book" kind of setting is inaccurate. It isn't.