There’s also some choices in the relationships V can take, but they don’t change everything much. That said, I think I makes sense that what V does wouldn’t really have much of an effect on Night City.

The lack of rpg choices makes it less bethesda to me

You mean the games where the dialogue choices are:

• Yes
• Sarcastic yes
• More info/persuasion
• No for now (but yes later)

I'm only watching someone play through but it's just poorly written too. Every single person you meet knows you're the main character and begs for your help.

That seems to be more choices than any other Bethesda RP game. They got ahold of TES and Fallout and completely stripped out the idea of RPG "choices." Gone are the days in TES and Fallout that one could role play as someone other than "the chosen one." I'll never defend Arena or Daggerfall for their graphics, but no game studio has put out a game since those two that literally allows the player to totally ignore the main quest line, with in game consequences for that. Nope. Time doesn't matter, you're the chosen one, and will "get around to it." As far as I can tell, there is basically only one ending to any of these Bethesda "RPGs," and no matter what choices you make, you'll find that ending if you slog through enough "quests."

Admittedly, I've never played fallout 1 or 2, though I own them, so I don't actually know if the world building was as detailed as it was in Arena and Daggerfall.

Bethesda has always relied on modders to fix their platforms for them. They don't make games. They make platforms that other people can mod to make the games that they wanted to make.