Yes? Not even live action movies light based on the direction of the sun. CGI is filled with 3 point lighting aka rim lighting.
Yes that is true - in indoor areas.
Outdoor sunlight has a much larger luminous value and will dwarf local light rigs so they are normally turned off. You can get rim lighting on skin/fur from just a directional light source in film because those materials actually implement the full BDRF equations for hair/skin - games do not - accept in cinematics (where you see Aloy's hair being lit correctly along with all other objects in the scene). However, even in cinematics, you lose directionality of the light source when objects are in shadow because of the GI light probes.
Here is a video of HZD showing that the lighting matches the scene lighting. Some of her hair strands have a glossy color to them to at least give the hair shape while in shadow (= constant color), her armor is reflecting an environment cube (also constant color) but her skin falls victim to the GI light probes. AO tries to save it a little bit but not nearly enough.
It might have been a decision to do this so that you can see more contrast in her hair with the specular highlight (which isn't computed in GI light probe computation) and upper body where you avoid your entire BRDF from being crushed to constant ambient term * texture color. As I said, it'll probably be changed in the final release so no need to argue over it.
If this is not good enough then in coming months I think there is going to be more disappointed.
). Is this because you weren't as impressed as you're making out? If bringing up the competition is your first thought that's a little worrying don't you think?
