It was short and basically plot was to predictable and to presumptious. The race you choose is purely aesthetic. Also had a very limited faction content. I feel they did all this to trim it down so that it will run without too many loading times for console. Had they developed this game with PC in mind I feel we would have a more comprehensive storyline.
how could you predict shouts, the blades and paathurnax on your first playthrough? (excluding watching spoilers obviously)
races actually have different abilities, thus they are less relevant than previous TES games, for example khajiits have night vision that is really useful.
idk if by "faction content" you mean the civil war or both civil war and guilds, but they are not that short in my opinion.
this said, I think you are probably right about the fact that if it was a PC only game it could've been bigger and it has been trimmed down to fit in consoles, but I play on the xbox360 so I'm happy to being able to play this game, and I been playing it for 350+ hours, so its not that short.