Perhaps this is just what the series needed, a fresh take from a new team, one that does justice to the high fantasy setting contained within.
but i never thought oblivion and skyrim were plain- i think they brought those games very close to the lore of men races. There was fantacy like the unicorn in oblivion and dragons in skyrim. maybe i mis-understanding what you meant by fantasy and meant fantasy in another format. i enjoy all the games from daggerfall when i played in 1999 to skyrim. brought the book lore in the games pretty close how they should of look by the computer quality of each games year that was made in. in my opinion of course