the problem was morrowind was great but buggy as fuck because they worked with a skeleton crew and barely made release
then they didn't give a fuck for oblivion and just kind of realized you don't actually have to try
like its really clear something is HORRIBLY fucking wrong with their dev cycle because it only takes a month for modders to retexture the entire game to not look like shit. The animations and a lot of the other awkwardness like lighting are engine related, and modders can't fix that, but like they've been using the same engine for 10 years and its had the same problems in every iteration.
and u get downvoted on reddit if you criticize it in any sort of substantial way. Bethesda gets away with this because they've managed to corner a market, but like angsty anime nerds in a bedroom can make their game better than they can at this point and it continues to weird me out that no one makes a beth game without the bethesda parts of it