idk how to put this into words well but I think the reason Bethesda fallout games have main quests that just kinda suck to me is because they try to make them personal to the character rather than the player, and the character is both too fleshed out to be a vessel for me as a player but not fleshed out enough for me to give a shit.
in fallout 4 I'm off in the wasteland with no reason to care about this kid I'm looking for because that's the character's kid, not mine. the main problem lies in Bethesda trying to flesh out the player character as their own person with the vault intro in 3 and the entire structure of 4.
in new vegas as far as I'm concerned benny just shot ME because the courier is a fully blank slate at the start of the game so there's no disconnect between me and the player character.
in fallout 1 all I know is that I'm from vault 13 and on a mission but every thing about my characterisation is mine from the start, the player is still a blank slate.
“When Chronos stormed your father’s House, I fled with but three things: Hypnos, because he was there; that family portrait, which pulled at my heart, and you.”