Why do huge and detailed have to be mutually exclusive?
Because the bigger you're map is, the more work it takes to design the whole thing, especially when it's all hand crafted, as Skyrim will be. A larger map means more locations across the world to design, and in an open world game, you can't just work on the places of note and neglect everything in between, you have to ensure that the whole map has enough detail that it doesn't become monotonous or test the players' suspension of disbelief. Now, this isn't to say that a large world must always be boring, but as a general rule, the bigger you're gameworld is, the harder it is to ensure that each location in it will be detailed enough and diverse enough.
Though it seems to me that the poll is flawed in that it fails to define "large", "medium" and "small". Because those words are kind of abstract terms, just how large qualifies as "large"?
Of course, no matter what we say now, we already know the map is about the same size as Oblivion, and Bethesda isn't going to suddenly change that just because some fans say it should be a different size.
As for what I want, I'd rather have a detailed world at the expense of size than a massive one at the expense of quality, if I have to choose. Not to say I don't like both, if we can have them, but I wouldn't want to play in a world that's massive but boring. Though at the same time, the game world can't be TOO small, as even if you can't make it as big as the province is in lore, you want to maintain the illusion that the scale of the world is plausible. For that purpose, I am content with the scale Bethesda is going for in Skyrim, as long as the world is detailed enough and varied enough to keep me interested in exploring it.
What can't happen on consoles? A detailed map? Why not, its a MAP not a high res texture pack. Just Cause 2 was on consoles and the map was detailed. Secret quest?
While Just Cause 2 had a pretty impressive level of detail for a gameworld of its size, I'd say it's not the level of detail and uniqueness Bethesda is probably aiming for in Skyrim. For one thing, you couldn't enter the various buildings in the game, and there was lerss small clutter than you'd expect to find in the Elder Scrolls. And the random people you'd see on the street were all generic pedestrians that were spawned, not unique, hand placed NPCs. And those aren't criticisms, for the kind of game it was, that worked pretty well for it. However, I don't think it's fair to expect the same map scale from the Elder Scrolls without coming at the sacrifice of detail and variety.