I think the problem is, there's only so much they can do with first-person on consoles. Do they keep releasing games with average at best first-person combat and clunky third-person as an afterthought? Or do they take third-person which is more naturally suited to consoles, improve it, and gradually make it the focus of the series?
It's unfortunate for first-person players like myself, but the latter makes the most sense given that console gamers make up a huge chunk of their fanbase.
More a question on how the controls work, Mount & Blade is an pure PC game, at least it was then I played I preferred playing it in 3rd person outside of sniping as the 3rd person viewpoint was good and the control was just as well in first and 3rd person.
Think first person is better for shooting as you are closer to the target, 3rd person in better for close combat as you get an better overview.
3rd person in Morrowind was pretty useless, a bit better in Oblivion but as the crosschair was in the middle of your head any form for ranged combat even picking up stuff on the ground was pretty hopeless.
Usable in Fallout 3, better in Skyrim so I have started using it, perhaps in TES 7 it become better than first person.