ID tech is nowhere near flexible enough for something like Starfield or even Skyrim. It’s partially the reason why it’s so efficient. It simply isn’t fit for the task.

And the Bethesda developers are intimately familiar with Creation Engine, achieving the same level of productivity with something new will take a long time. Switching the engine is not an easy thing.

Not to say that Creation Engine isn’t a cumbersome mess. It has pretty awful performance, stability and is full of bugs, but on the other hand it’s extremely flexible which has allowed its games to have massive mod communities.

Anyone thinking that Microsoft’s recently found appreciation for open source isn’t a Trojan Horse is a fool.

As long as it’s not being used to target ads at me

It’s Microsoft. They will gather every bit of your data they can and use it for whatever makes the most money. Which is usually personalized ads.