Yeah, it's better than how it was in Skyrim. There, your character didn't even seem to have a basic grasp on Tamriellic history/lore. 鈥淲hat are the Thalmor?鈥?Uh, were you born just yesterday? You should know damned well what the Thalmor are! Or if you're a Nord, 鈥淲ho are the Greybeards?鈥?Um, wow. You don't even know what the one thing that all Nords consider sacred traditions is? Wow.

At least you get made fun of occasionally for not knowing that stuff

Something similar to the start in fallout 2. But start out in a vault cityesque settlement

I would probably go for a wasteland wanderer, heavily inspired by spaghetti westerns in style. IDK, something like that.

But if the PC you selected was racially a Nord, then you're assuming the PC was trying to LEAVE Skyrim when caught sneaking across the border. Not ENTERING it. Especially if say, your Nord grew up/was born as a child in another province besides Skyrim. You know. A Thalmor un-infested provinces like Morrowind. Or even as far flung as Hammerfell. The odds of a PC that spent all their life OUTSIDE Skyrim isn't going to be current on events occurring in their homeland....

I don't recall it saying whether or not you were crossing into or out of Skyrim. Ralof said in the cart ride at the beginning "You were trying to cross the border right?". Could mean you were coming or going.

The protagonist in FO:NV wasn't a vault dweller and was given their Pipboy by the Doc. But you would need to have some contact with a vault or vault dweller somewhere to get one. Maybe you could have been a slave and was rescued by a vault dweller.

As I recall, asking "Who are the Greybeards" is optional, so your character's ignorance is optional.

Its kinda inescapable. Supposedly the Courier in New Vegas had traveled across NCR territory yet he/she can still ask Trudy what the NCR is. You ultimately have a choice not to ask that though. I don't think developers should be hamstrung into having player characters that have an excuse not to know anything. I mean, I'm embarrassed watching this as an American: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJlY9C7YWzI Ignorance of the big picture around you isn't that rare.

Maybe its abit of an out there idea, And some people will be yeah but that's not canonical etc, Think Mothership Zeta.

You could start prewar get abducted and then placed back on earth outside a vault after the bombs have dropped, Since it being the nearest location you are tasked to explore it and find a pip-boy in the entrance cave......

I really like the idea of like starting out somewhere on the edge of the map. After you create your character you come into the outskirts of the Commonwealth. A lone crazy vault dweller attacks you for your loot. You struggle with him until you are standing over his/her corpse. You than loot his body, taking his vault suit along with his pipboy.