Unfortunately, it is so common in this day and age for games and software to be total bugfests that we no longer expect things to actually work properly to praise a piece of software (ie. our tolerance is far higher than it used to be and the only remaining standard is that it still remains possible to complete the game or obtain desired output).
Rock-stable software that just works in all cases is a lost art now. The scale of games and the power of applications is far greater now, but at what cost?
This is true, that nowadays software is far more complex and it’s scope (the vision) is larger. It makes sense that user expectations are enormous (for future projects) as well as there is experience and understanding of already existing things that are rock solid and they do work.
That being said, just a disclaimer in order to put things into perspective and be fair, and not too dismissive on the state of things.
If understood only one thing about software development, is that you never start from scratch (this goes for all endeavours generally). You shall always continue from where you left off (or from where others before you did). Starting from scratch is literally making something new and this has lots of risks.
As for example:
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Mass Effect: The series were success and there was technical foundation and a strong lore, but either way “Mass Effect Andromeda” flopped nicely on release.
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Cyberpunk: The Witcher series were success and respectful, Cyberpunk was something new that the team and the company didn’t handle before. It flopped nicely. Now after several years of continuous updates it can be considered somewhat OK, but the initial first good impression is lost forever and the hype is gone for good.
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Starfield: I don’t know exactly what happened here, since the story has not been written yet. I can only estimate that if you would take the Skyrim engine and change all models to space-theme and update the graphics to 2023 standard, you would have something viable. Not something innovative and cutting edge that would change the world (ie: metaverse) but something that is very solid and stable and users-players know and are used to.
These were only just a few simple examples, to prove my point. That instead of doing random development from scratch, is better to have programmers maintaining the same code for 20 years all the way.
Fortunately, gamers are deciding they are not going to lie down as the situation with proper optimization becomes even worse than the situation with bugs.
The Alan Wake 2 requirements for instance, it seems a number of studios now believe in AI-powered upscaling and frame insertion being these magic technologies that can replace optimization (so by default, you would only have to a design a game to run well at 30 FPS while playing in a window slightly larger than a postage stamp, at least in terms of what it would look like on a high resolution screen).
You have to require upscaling then, or otherwise most would have to play at resolutions last seen in the Doom/Quake era (480p or lower). This does not so much apply to me as I do not game much anymore, but I still have a few indie games from Steam which have beautiful optimization and fairly well written code (Terraria, Teardown, and Parkitect).
Starfield: I don’t know exactly what happened here, since the story has not been written yet. I can only estimate that if you would take the Skyrim engine and change all models to space-theme and update the graphics to 2023 standard, you would have something viable. Not something innovative and cutting edge that would change the world (ie: metaverse) but something that is very solid and stable and users-players know and are used to.
These were only just a few simple examples, to prove my point. That instead of doing random development from scratch, is better to have programmers maintaining the same code for 20 years all the way.
I’m pretty sure one of many of the complaints against Bethesda’s games these days is that they are doing exactly that, relying on an aging Morrowind-era engine for most of their games even if it is clearly showing its age. I can’t speak for Starfield, but I am aware that Elder Scrolls 6 will still use the same engine as Skyrim, which was also used in Oblivion and Morrowind. Fallout 76 uses that same old engine and yet it is perhaps the studio’s buggiest and least popular game to date.
Bethesda games are just “janky” in general, and I don’t think using a more familiar engine, switching to a new one, or even reducing the scope and complexity will solve a problem that is part of the studio’s DNA at this point.
Yeah, indie games and the occasional polished first-party Nintendo game are basically the main things that continue to get me hyped and excited about modern video games, despite everything else. I’m sure indies make highly-optimized games out of necessity, plus to ensure even kids playing on their parents’ office laptops can at least experience the game on lower settings, but still, it’s always so bizarre that a random Steam game like Spark the Electric Jester 3 (a Sonic Adventure-style game from a guy named Lake Feperd) allows me to turn up all the graphical settings to Kingdom Come while STILL allowing me to experience the joys of 144 FPS gaming for the first time ever. Meanwhile, far too many “triple-A” PC ports, even ones that run perfectly fine on the more…humble Nintendo Switch or last-gen consoles, like Sonic Frontiers or Elden Ring, make me scared of even playing on Medium settings at 30 FPS on my RTX 3060-equipped PC. Though the DRM that many “triple-A” PC ports are saddled with and anti-cheats, like the infamous Denuvo, may be partly to blame, but that is outside the scope of this forum topic and an ENTIRELY different can of worms.
Plus, while I’m sure even the most casual console gamers are smart enough to trade in a poorly-optimized game that fails to even load most of the time, you could perhaps blame hardcore PC gamers for the “triple-A” industry’s insistence on prioritizing pretty reflections above even the most basic optimization techniques or acceptable frame rates. In my personal experience, they generally seem to be the type that can NOT settle for anything less than Ultra/Max settings on everything at absurdly high refresh rates, and will mock and ridicule you if you so much as prioritize battery life instead on your Steam Deck or (horrors!) pre-built laptop. Sounds extreme, sure, but you would be surprised how many people unironically think this way in PC Gamer comment sections, and encourage large companies to think the same way.
You can say in various aspects the engine has limitations.
Then you can imagine that there are lots of things missing from the scripting logic of the characters and the NPCs.
I have seen a comparison video, where the player uses a weapon in a random place in the city and the NCPs just chilling doing their business. In Skyrim the same thing of using a weapon like this can have all of the guards in the city attacking you, also marking you permanently as enemy (you won’t be able to walk free in there).
I can think that for example if the engine has limitations, you would probably can balance things out with an immersive world, or you can rely on exploration and travelling, or you can rely at least on good storytelling or plot. At least for me Skyrim never gets boring (no mods), I can revisit it once every two years and I feel like is a new game. We talk about having significant depth and lots of wisdom behind it.
At least for me, where I am getting at, is that all problems of Bethesda were solved in Skyrim and Fallout3. Now is impossible to create something new that can overcome the established status of these two.
— On the contrary, Ubisoft with their Assasin’s Creed series, are clever enough to keep pumping game after game on the same engine, with the same things. You can blame them for repetitive design or lack of innovation all you want, but never for their tech stack. 
The legendary game designer, of the classic Fallout1, has lots of ideas about how Starfield (etc) could be improved.
Do not focus too much on the topic of the talk that is “procedural-vs-handmade” but focus on the creative aspect, about what goes into making a game interesting and what is the brainstorming process behind making a game unique and exciting…
I must admit that the current state or RPGs is very sad, that is all about level grinding, rather than having some virtual world to explore.