I installed a camping and basic needs mod, then started a new character as a bandit or a wild elf who avoids most towns?

I've been trying to roleplay several different characters lately and I'm finding all the quests in the game pretty boring and unrewarding. At least in Fallout when I completed a quest I was rewarded XP which I could then use to develop my character. This gave me more motivation to find and complete quests, and I think it's one of the reasons that the XP system in the Fallout series is better than the "get better as you do" system.

My character only develops and gets better by killing monsters and fighting dragons, so what is the point of doing any quests? My latest character was supposed to be a pilgrim travelling from town to town helping people out and killing bad guys with my blessed war-mace. But the lack of any meaningful quests just makes it a boring chore, and now it seems wandering the wilderness would be far more rewarding and fun.

Nobody can answer that for you - it's all down to personal preferences. Why not try it out?

I did a character where I just traveled around to all the locations around Falkreath not doing any quest and it may have been the funnest character I played with.

I prefer the whole "practice and you become better" approach, in my opinion it feels like I'm truyly honing my skills.

I generally find that the more Bethesda interprets for my character, the less fun I have. That's why all these polarizing factions in Skyrim piss me off so much, I'm forced into the character they want. Ambiguity is TES's best friend, and it always will be. I have the most fun visiting small towns and taking bounties.

You tell us mate, WOULD you enjoy it more?

Maybe Elder Scrolls games aren't for you?

You know, Skyrim just isn't that fun of a game in the long run. :/
I mean, I can start a new build and have lots of fun up to about levels 10-20, then the mindless dungeon looting and pointless quests get boring.

Don't get me wrong, Skyrim can be great fun, but, it's just not something I can sit down with for a long time and really get in to.

The camping mod would definitely help me, though, it would make my outdoorsman playthrough a lot more fun.

This.

The problem I have with how Fallout did XP is that I had 100 skill in Big Guns before I had ever even touched one, then I dominated with them first time out. Seems pretty meh to me. I love as-you-go XP of TES.

Wandering the wilderness is very fun and rewarding in any ES game its by far the best aspect of these games by far, try that out for yourself.

As far as quest go, you don't need experience to be rewarding, the skills progressing is essentially experience points, but if you do not like what you get with the quest exploration is your best bet, and its the best part of these ES games and its also the best part in Fallout 3 as well.