I really didn't understand what was being talked about, with "route stories", I have never heard that term before.
Then I read the post again, and unless I'm mistaken I believe it's what I have been doing for years.
I can look at a map and fix bits at a time in my head. Cross this field, come to a small wood, go along it's right-hand side, turn right at a T-junction of paths at the far edge of the wood, reach a B-road, and then it's time to look at the map again.
I think it was born from my days on the road as a service engineer, when I could look at the A-Z street map and memorise the route to my next call.
A lot of the upland walking I've done in recent years has been fairly pathless, when I navigate by looking at features of the land such as streams, hills, valleys, blocks of forest, etc.
But when I'm walking I still manage to go off course through sheer carelessness and inattention. I plod along so wrapped up in my own little world that sometimes I carry on past where I should have turned off, even if the instruction is tucked away in my brain.