You could make a decent character without mods. There were limits, since iirc the sliders were locked together; adjust one and others changed,
Keeping in mind that everyone has different preferences and opinions, of course. And given the propensity of so many posters to demonize Oblivion for some reason, the game did have both good and bad points. Good point for me was being able to change the faces; Morrowind didn't have that; you could choose different faces, but not make changes in the features of those set faces. Unless you downloaded a mod, I think Rhedd's Heads was one, and again, it changed out the whole head. Skyrim added more changes to character creation. The next game will be different again.