There was so many problems with Starfield, but the biggest issue was that they got rid of one of the biggest draws of their games: exploring a handcrafted world. Procedural generation can work for some things, but not for creating compelling landscapes and points of interest.
And lets face it, it WAS a terrible game. Even Skyrim when it released was pretty mediocre compared to other RPGs. The only reason it has the lasting power it does is because of mods.