The question I ask is if Bethesda spent all the time on technical things would they make the amazing games they do? Give me a Bethesda game with bugs over any other smooth game with no heart any day.
Every company has an attention budget to spend from.
hasn't bethesda been limping "the creation engine" which is really gamebryo along for the last 10 years? They are doing technical things, they're just doing them poorly.
The incredible moddability of their RPGs, at least, is in large part to the flexibility of their engine. How many other games have active modding communities 12 years after launch as large as New Vegas'?
Every company has an attention budget to spend from.