You're forgetting that Morrowind was a horribly unoptimized piece of shit.
Honestly that fucking game had performance problems, and I'm still sour over it because that was the day Bethesda died in my mind. All I have is memories of Daggerfall and Arena.
Oblivion was ok as a game itself, I'd say the combat itself was a step forward, it was certainly better than the "press LMB and move in direction and watch a weapon animation happen (in which all the weapons had the same range, and I didn't see any effect from mods to change it)" combat system that it carried over from Daggerfall.
Even so, it really doesn't feel like A TES game at all. It seems I guess in concept; more like a watered down, aesthetically pleasing shell of a TES game that's made palatable for the masses.
playing hack and slash D&D Doom for Chrissakes
To be honest, that's what I thought of when I was playing Daggerfall for the first time. And to be honest, I found that to be a good thing. Because really, at the time, most CRPGS were really boring. Let's face it, the TES series of games were RPG: Lite. They had a story to them, and there was some character interaction, but it wasn't the focal point of the game. The fact that Oblivion wasn't such a poorly coded sack of garbage as Morrwind was, makes it better and worse.
Better because it's playable, and worse because it's yet another watered-down Daggerfall wannabe.
Heroes of might and magic, nigz plz. Not enough interaction. Fuck the story, I want to play a game. If Fallout hadn't been fun to PLAY. I would have never enjoyed it the way I had. Good story or not. I read when I want to be dragged along though some kind of narrative.