The 'lack of NPC' lore confuses me a little. Since Xehanort is in Agrabah about 70-odd years before Sora, how does that work with the Aladdin lore (which KH1 adopted) where Genie had been trapped in the lamp for 200 years. Agrabah is one of the worlds that are slowly rebuilding from the Keyblade War, which we were led to believe happened a long time prior to Dark Road (surely more than 200 years?) so Genie wouldn't have had a master longer than 200 years so my guess, for Genie coming back into Agrabah from the darkness, it might have felt like no time had passed at all to him even though it had been centuries.
I'm no doubt mis-remembering details like if Genie had actually said it's been 200 years since he was out as it's been 3 years since I last played KH1 but I'm curious if this was an oversight or not. I know Genie said he's lucky to get out every century or two but I could swear there was a text bubble or something that specified 200 years.
Y'know, I'm probably just over thinking it. Yay Disney worlds, woo Xehanort's World Tour.