Skyrim and other Bethesda games do better than most open world games by having an order of magnitude more detail to everything you can explore.
All those caverns, smuggler’s dens, vampire lairs, dusty tombs, creepy cabins, abandoned forts that you can stumble on at any point while travelling and come across enemies, treasure troves, even the odd quest hook or boss monster. It might grow samey over time through reuse of assets, but it’s a lot of fun for a long time before it gets to that point.
Compare that to, say, Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry where the open world is mostly vacant of any meaningful content outside of the designated mission areas or hubs, with maybe a “collect these 150 trinkets for an achievement” thrown in for good measure.
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