Her name was Agnis. She wasn't attacking me, so wasn't an enemy. I clicked on her to try and begin a conversation. "I just cook and clean and do whatever they ask of me," she said. I thought, "Why isn't she reacting to the two dead bandits at her feet?" If she was being held prisoner, which I took as her meaning, then why wasn't she glad to see two of her captors dead? I clicked on her again.
"I can't even keep track of all the people who have been in and out of this fort," she told me. "They come, they go, I barely notice!" I sighed at the lost opportunity for some proper roleplaying. Why didn't the game developers recognize the emotional potential in this encounter? I could have told Agnis she was free, and she could have fled to the nearby city of Whiterun where I would have found her later and basked in the good deed I'd done.
There's something to be said for subtlety and imagination though. There ARE opportunities to have that whole "tangible gains" reaffirmation. Just go to Markarth and shoot would-be assassins in the knee, then visit the pub, talk to the people you saved. It changes things.
This one example is hardly the game. What about the random guy failing as a conjurer, who won't give up his borrowed staff of power? Or the necro witch trying to raise her dead relative? There's plenty of opportunity for role playing. Mods will add more, but I would hardly call it soulless.
Jumping on the hate bandwagon I say. Why not, it's easier than modding for free, that's for sure. Not as respectable though. Especially since this guy gets ad revenue.
I played that same fort and my thought was she must have been with some previous group of occupants. Some group had overrun the fort, taken pity on her being a feeble old lady, maybe even had a sense of "honor among thieves" and decided not to slaughter the helpless. She herself even mentions how many have come and gone.
Maybe this latest band of thugs were more "occupiers" than actual captors. Some wiry orc decided to have her cook and "service the men." Plenty of opportunity for a fervent imagination.
But that's just me.