One of the main reasons I disliked the earlier two games were because of the complexity. I was only 12 at the time, so I didn't understand what all those stats, attributes, and skills meant. It just seemed like to much to handle; so many numbers! I didn't know what I was doing at all!
Skyrim of course, drove away from this. It completely ditched the idea of attributes (speed, endurance, agility, etc) and replaced them with the three simple ones (magicka, health, and stamina). It also ditched the original idea of stats (light armor, heavy armor, etc) and replaced them with corresponding skill trees, allowing the player to choose their path on the skill tree.
I guess what I am trying to say is that Skyrim seemed to make the original TES formula and make it into a very simple, very casual form. While nothing is wrong with is, I think I might have actually preferred the complexity I found in the original games. Why is it Bethesda decided to do this?