There are Bethesda games as in made by the studio and Bethesda games as in the game genre that only Bethesda (And Oblivion once) produces with their proprietary game engine. A major aspect of the game genre version of Bethesda game is that the “main” story is neither necessary or important for the player’s enjoyment. The main story is typically one of many things the player can do and is not usually what fans of the genre are most interested in. Finishing a Bethesda game means doing everything that’s in it or getting bored at some point before that.

There are still tons of people playing all Bethesda games from Morrowind to Fallout 4 to this day with active mod scenes and setting discussion communities keeping the playerbases of those games alive. People having a nice enough time after the story and quitting since there’s nothing else interesting to do is not what fans of Bethesda games want from a game like this. Compared to other linear shooters I’m sure it’s fine enough, but I don’t think this is what anyone wanted for Starfield.

The criticism that Bethesda doesn’t finish their games because they expect volunteer modders to has been around since at least Oblivion IIRC. I always thought it was BS, but since Fo4 was essentially remade from the ground up into a now quite beloved game by the mod scene they may have considered this with Starfield. Bethesda now is more Zenimax than the Bethesda of 10 years ago so while I didn’t believe it then I have less reason to doubt now.

It’s always important to take a step back and consider that the mega-rich exist in a totally separate reality than the rest of us do. They were raised in a way that they were never forced out of infancy into adulthood like the rest of us were. I hope that eventually we realize that it’s not responsible to allow major institutions to be under the control of adults whose worldview has never progressed since the time they were toddlers.