Yeah, Bethesda games have always been... playable, I guess, but hardly any good, without modding, at least as far back as Oblivion. Morrowind was the last game they made that was just good, out of the box, without needing mods.
So I figured in a year or two Starfield will be good, with mods, just like Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 were all bland at best on release, until mods made them good.
Makes me think of Vault 11 from Fallout New Vegas where the population has to sacrifice one person every year or everyone would be killed.
Only it was a test and if they refused then nobody is killed. But they send sacrifices for almost 200 years.