Why can't this be like PC? How do PC users get so much more freedom? A simple solution to "breaking the game" complaints would be a simple "Use mods at your own risk, May cause game breaking problems for unexperienced mod users." disclaimer. Mods on the PC already contain advlt content and are available to anyone who downloads them, There are M rated games with nvdety in them which people can buy....What is your point?
I think XBL is what would create the "PR and Tech Support nightmare" because with XBL that content is easier to access by anyone of any age group. If your worried about kids seeing nvde people you shouldn't, If a parent can't control what their child sees they have no business raising one.
Because no one company has control over the PC, and the OS running on it is inherently general purpose, that's why. Consoles are, by their very nature, restricted and restrictive - that's no more an insult to them than it would be to point out a unicycle only has one wheel. It's just a part of what they are. You're giving up that freedom for simplicity. Another incompatibility between modding and consoles is that mods add a level of unpredictable requirements, wheras the major strength of console development is having entirely predictable hardware and being able to tailor the requirements to suit. Obviously if you want to allow modding, you can no longer have your game always up to the edge of the hardware, wheras on PC the hardware grows over time, and the game stays static, forever raising the free power gap.
For me to say "No, I don't want mods on consoles" is not elitism (Though if you accuse me of it I won't deny it with any great passion), nor is it being on a high horse, nor is it wanting to keep what I have for myself. Politically it is a nightmare, as while sony are fairly open to user created content, microsoft are absolutely against it (And who can blame them, when they can get a cut off overpriced DLC that people might not buy if there were better, free alternatives?), and it's a technical impossibility because of what I outlined above. It is because the game I get upon release is the same as your game, and if your game supports modding to any real degree, that means that bethesda have deliberately done less than they could. Mods on PC can only make the game better, but mods on console would either be incredibly, incredibly limited, or have actively detracted from the game. But I don't have to worry about that, because microsoft don't even allow free *official* content, never mind free unofficial content.