When you're talking about dumbing down Elder Scrolls games, you're talking primarily about fast travel and quest markers. What made the original ES games so captivating and culminating with morrowind, was the immersion factor of not having quest markers. You really had to know the world, and immerse yourself in it, to complete the game. So, despite the fact that Morrowind had far less voice acting than Oblivion or Skyrim, you were force to dig into the game, and by the game forcing you to dig into it, the game was deeper and more immersive as a result.
I've played every single Elder Scrolls game on PC, the year that they actually released, Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. The ease of access of these games have incrementally increased in each iteration. That's good. However, too much streamlining can go too far. The loss of the custom spell system for example is a downer. At the same time, while fun, being able to design your own custom spells was brutally OP, and it could easily destroy whatever tight gameplay thresholds you might wish to attempt to present as a game designer.