So I think you're missing the big picture for enjoying skyrim. Skyrim is a shit game, it just is. BUT, what it is, is a fantastic platform and set of resources. Your enjoyment of skyrim comes down to what you make out of the platform that is Skyrim.
If you're looking for an out of the box game, well it isnt the game for you. Hell once you're done modding, then you have the long ass tuning process. And even once you're done modding innitially, then you have to go through the first 20 odd levels installing other mods to fix various issues with the game
The joy of skyrim is that every feature you don't like, you can change. Quests aren't rewarding enough? there's a mod for it. Combat is a non-factor, custom tune your damage intake and output, stack multiple combat mods together.
Once you're done tuning the game to your liking, you will have your ideal game. It will be as easy or as dificult as you want it, it will be as rewarding or thankless as you want it. It will be, in essence, YOUR game. And assuming you've used modding correctly (custom tuning to what you want), your game likely won't be similar to anyone else's game, outside of the quest text.
I'm a mythic raider in WoW, dark souls player, etc, I enjoy hard content with good gameplay. So I installed and tinkered with enough mods to make the gameplay extremely engaging.
My core issues with base skyrim are as follows
>shit magic
>weapon damage scaling is too high
>perks are flat % scaling
>shit magic
>combat is non-existant
>lack of 'out of combat' systemside depth
How do I fix?
>SkyTweak for fuck tons of tuning options (magic and weapon scaling, etc)
>Ordinator for a better and more balanced perk system that introduces playerside combat gameplay
>Apocalypse spell package to give more spells therefore more playerside combat gameplay
>Ultimate combat+Revengeoftheenemies/Wildcats to outright fix enemy AI, making them smart enough that with good SkyTweak tuning, combat is both hard and engaging
