I agree with OP, and it really became blatant when Starfield got out. Their design patterns and game engine have not evolved with the industry standards, and they don’t seem to have understood that. Fortunately, there are alternatives, like the Outer Worlds, Tainted Grail, etc. I guess the alternatives will become more and more interesting with time, as those game have showed that it was possible to do Bethesda-ish games without the shortcomings (and lies) of Bethesda.