Then as a holdover we get Starfield, which pretty much shows there isn't any creative talent allowed to breathe over there. My hopes for a solid future entry to the TES series died.

The original ES creators are long gone. At one point one of them even said he's happy the company is successful but the games are not games he would have made.

Thier lore guy left after Oblivion.
Todd and Pete Hines have said before their goal is to streamline everything in each game more than the last. That also leads into their you must be able to win everything philosophy that dumbs each game down even further.

Thankfully there's ESO. They actually have good writers on that. It's probably the last good elder scrolls game, unless something drastic changes within Bethesda.