When I look at the modern Bethesda Fallout games Fallout 3 and New Vegas, whether or not you liked the endings those games provided major decisions with major repercussions. In Fallout 3 project purity can impact everyone in the Capital Wasteland and in New Vegas you ultimately decide the fate of 2 competing nations or create an independent city state more or less out of thin air. In both games the geopolitical future of the region is in the players hands.

In Fallout 4 it's 100% unclear exactly how anything is impacted when you choose the Institute. Ultimately the world seems essentially the same as the one you walked out into when you initially leave Vault 111. You remove the institutes rivals and clear the way for the Institute to do... something. But exactly what the institute will do moving forward or how it impacts the Commonwealth is a complete mystery and you have no say. Fallout games are supposed to allow you to impact the world but I just don't see it.

In the end you wander back off into the wasteland again but now you are "prepared". Umm really? I am the leader of a massive scientific research facility that now has unlimited power to expand however I see fit. I can live in complete safety for the rest of my life while the rest of the world is a quagmire of death and destruction. If I choose a peaceful life, I can have the most peaceful life imaginable in this world.

If I don't choose a peaceful life I have an army of synths that can literally materialize out of thin air to project force anywhere, anytime. My capability to dominate any battlefield is unrivaled as I will always have the element of surprise and can engage enemies on whatever terms I choose 100% of the time. No enemy can possibly threaten me and no existing force in the commonwealth or anywhere else can stand against me. Teleportation is the ultimate tactical and strategic advantage and I now have unlimited power removing any restraints that might have stopped me from projecting power in the past.

But instead of acknowledging any of those realities above the actual game just continues on minus the factions that needed to be removed to achieve victory. You get some npc's voicing their opinions about your actions but after 1 conversation they return to normal as if nothing has changed. The institute NPC's continue to send you on simple fetch quests as before. The actual world remains unchanged, you cannot direct the Institute to actually *do* anything one way or another.

Shouldn't I be able to use the institute as an instrument of good or evil now that I'm the director and all major threats have been destroyed? Shouldn't I be able to get answers as to why the Institute took the actions they did in the past (replacing people, the kidnapping accusations, the psycopath synth that went on a rampage in Diamond city, etc)?

There's just so many unanswered questions and ultimately all your choices only come at a high cost with no perceptible benefits. You destroy the other factions because they are a (perceived) threat, but what am I fighting for other than survival? What will we do once victory is attained?

The other factions opposition to the Institute all revolves around Synths. The Brotherhood actually has a very compelling argument for why they want the institute destroyed. Am I going to go full speed ahead deploying the synths the Brotherhood so feared would lead to the next apocalypse? Or am I going to heed the Brotherhoods advice and stop making self-aware synths so that ultimately they succeed despite their defeat?

Looking at the same question through the perspective of the railroad, Will I continue to create and use synths as "slaves"? Or stop making them? Or even go with an "ultimate railroad victory" option of continuing to make synths but giving them free will and their own choice how to live their lives where the retention department is dismantled?

Wouldn't the choice to support the institute be more compelling if the player is provided with the answers above and then upon completing the quest arc be given the option to:
- choose to be an instrument of good in which case you see institute synths battling supermutants, ferals and raiders much as you saw Brotherhood troops/vertibirds doing so earlier int he game? Radiant quests could be used to further flesh out this "good" option and perhaps NPC's could comment on how maybe they were wrong about the institute after all. Synths could be dispatched to help defend settlements and trading convoys, etc.

- choose to be an instrument of evil in which case radiant quests are generated where you go out and kidnap or kill key heads of factions/cities etc so a Synth can take their place and deepen the Institutes control/manipulation network/acquire important technology/resources to expand power etc? In which case NPC's display enhanced fear/paranoia in the world (again, make my choice impact the world!).
- Choose to be neutral where there are still other radiant quests perhaps more focused on enhancing the Institute itself without any impact to the surface?

I just get the feeling the Institute ending could have been so much better, and leaves way too much unresolved.

Synths appear in Diamond City and other locations across the map and the Mayor of Diamond City toadies to you.

Congratulations, you now rule the Commonwealth.

You can start rebuilding it with the Minutemen.

Start with Shanty Towns and work your way up.

But the Institute is not possessed nanoreplicators or other stuff like that or they wouldn't need to scavenge the surface like animals. You'll probably be a century or so before the Commonwealth is up to Institute levels of tech.

Perhaps they're rouge former Railroad agents looking to spite you for a bit of vengeance.

Or just malfunctioning.

That would be the case if not for the fact the Institute having almost no resources was a plot point.

They don't have building materials, supplies, or energy so they have to raid the surface and send out scavenging teams.

I'm surprised there's not a radiant quest for it.