that's fair. I meant to bring linear approach up as a way of limiting the choices you have to make decisions easier. Games like DOOM need to have environments that "make sense" in all aspects bc players have the freedom of exploring the environment. Comics/books don't have to deal with it as much because the movement is limited by framing, composition, and author-controlled narrative.
Are you sure you can clearly depict that there is only a single approach to that area and your characters can’t, say, just find another route instead of sneaking by?
That's the thing-- there are infinite ways to get by this hoard of sleeping goblins, but this character, being an arrogant thief, thinks that he has the skills to sneak past them. Perhaps if it was the noble warrior, he would wake them up and challenge them to a fight. As long as readers understand character motivation, they won't question the alternative pathways.
Perhaps a modular strategy would just be for you to design the environment without considering any character decisions or plot at all until after you're done with the environment? I.e build a dungeon that makes logical sense, then figure out how your characters would get through it.