I loved Fallout 4 but one of my least favorite aspects of it was how it forced me into base building when I pretty much wasn’t interested in that aspect of the game. I get Bethesda was doing something new and wanted to show it off, but it was so annoying being so prevalent in a lot of the main missions of that game. I’m really hoping they don’t make the same mistake with Starfield. I know a lot of people are hyped about the settlement building and the micro managing just as they were in Fallout 4, but personally I’m not super interested in that. I’m more interested in the RPG stuff.
It’s also the reason I don’t play No Man’s Sky(apart from the bait and switch launch).
People don’t play Bethesda games because they are good sims but because they are good RPGs.
If they pivot to a sim/building type game then I don’t think people will like it.
I ended up actually liking the base building but I hated it being forced down my throat during missions. I still couldn’t get over the tedium of actually caring for settlers though. When I finished the game I built a mega mansion at graygarden and then a bunch of other houses with different styles littered across the map. All for myself.