What games do Bethesda stuff better do you think? I know balders gate 3 is literally incredible and launched this year, but is there anything else? Outer worlds is a great game, that's similar.
It's not about other games that do Bethesda stuff better. It's more about other games that do their own thing so good that they make Bethesda's stuff seem antiquated or not as interesting.
It's been over a decade since Skyrim and lots of innovations and changes in open-world gaming have occurred. Many games have put their own spins onto the action-adventure open-world space, whether they're RPGs or have various RPG elements. For many people "the Bethesda way" simply may not be the gold standard anymore, so it wouldn't matter if other games are doing open-world similar to Bethesda games or better than them.
A family member of mine has an Xbox & Game Pass so I'll borrow their system for a few days and play the game that way (dunno if I'll finish it) the next time they swing by. So everything WRT my own commentary is just as an observer. However, I've seen more than a handful of streamers, as one example, basically not really like the game very much, including some bigger-name ones. Their chats seemingly thought the game looked boring, for the most part. And some of these people are big Skyrim fans and play predominantly on PC, so in theory they should be some of Starfield's biggest fans.
There is definitely interest in the game out here beyond the most hardcore Bethesda fans, but I don't think Starfield has the appeal of a Skyrim for many others, in a post-GTA5/BOTW/TOTK/Cyberpunk (post-patches)/Elden Ring etc. world. Even this early on I can tell it doesn't have the drawing power of those and arguably even other open-world games, like Spiderman and HFW. I mean this in terms of the game appealing to the majority of potential fans, beyond just the hardcore and into the core, casual and mainstream spaces.
So I think overall reception may be a bit more muted than some are expecting, but in some circles the game will have solid "slow burn" appeal, particularly on PC once modders take to it with a lot of content. But anyone expecting anything close to Skyrim numbers from this game need to temper those expectations.