Idk, having only played Oblivion and Skyrim, I feel like (generally speaking) the simplifications in Skyrim were for the better. Take custom spells for example. Only a few spells really even made sense to make and it was better to make them in very specific ways. It’s not like the games are super difficult. Fucking around with spells and more complex enchantments was cool but too easy to cheese.
Oh, and the leveling. Holy fuck what an over complicated mess. Where you could accidentally over level but also under level. Insane. Good riddance.
Complex systems are not inherently good. They’re good if they provide meaningful choices and are fun to use. But ES has always been about the story and exploration more so anyways (in my opinion).
I have replayed Half Life 2 a few times. Some parts of the game feel really goofy now. There are many physics based puzzles in game. Like needing to weigh down a see saw like platform with cinder blocks to get across a gap. I think at the time these were really revolutionary, but they feel silly now. At the same time, I’m hard pressed to think of shooters that still include that type of puzzle (but I also don’t play many shooters nowadays).
I’ve heard that this happened with Scrubs (and possibly other TV shows) leading to the original box set of DVDs having different songs playing in the background than the streaming versions.