Bethesda makes huge games that endure because they're large, replayable and moddable - not because they use cutting-edge tech, have great writing or offer any innovation. Those things are added by the rabid fan base through mods. They also used to have good writing (Morrowind) but those staff members are gone.

Shen worked at Bethesda for more than 14 years. He's only been out for just over 1 year. The koolaid isn't out of his system yet. He's just reacting to how other people do it and stay in business.

Players are fatigued by the same old bugs in the Gamebryo engine showing up in every Bethesda game in the last 20 years.
Players are fatigued by 7-8 loading screens whenever they want to go somewhere.
Players are fatigued by poor quest design, nonsensical writing and disconnected stories that go on forever. Fix that stuff and people are fine with larger games.