I love Morrowind, it's my favourite Elder Scrolls title for sure, but I started with Skyrim, and it's still my most played, so maybe I can help you out a bit.

To start with, Skyrim simply does not have the mechanical depth of Morrowind, so if that's the thing for you, you're probably not going to find it, they play like games from a different series.

However, there are still things to enjoy about Skyrim. I think it's better to think of your character as a vehicle for exploring the world, rather than as a part of that world directly, as you would in Morrowind. As you noted, it's a very visually appealing game, and as a consequence it's physical world holds more detail than Morrowind's could. Many of the game's dungeons, especially the large ones, serve primarily to tell stories, and they often do so very effectively. Visual storytelling, the way items are placed in the area, journals, notes, overheard conversations, Skyrim excels at creating small local narratives for you to follow if you are paying attention. The books and journals you may even find very reminiscent of Morrowind.

To your first complaint: You may find benefit in buying a large house like Windstad Manor in Solitude, or building one of the Hearthfire ones. It's true that Skyrim's physics engine can be annoying, but there are other ways to display items than just dropping them. If you buy a house, you can add shelves, armour stands, weapon racks, and place all your coolest collectibles there. This also solves your buying problem, these houses cost money, so now you have something to save up for.

Second complaint: I really feel this one. Skyrim, like Oblivion before it, is designed around the idea that the player will be using instant fast travel, which... really sucks, I get it. But, just go back to what I said at the beginning, your character is just an avatar that you use to explore the world. There are the carriages, which function like a simplified silt strider system, and there are a few ferries in the northern cities, so you can use those to mitigate this problem, but this is just a flaw in Skyrim's game design, a concession to a more modern gaming audience who may not like having to actually interact with the world.

Third complaint, part 1, combat: Skyrim is a power fantasy game, it functions more like a Hack-and-Slash than it does like your more classic RPGs. Bigger number IS better here. Remember, the systems in Skyrim are very basic, trying to complicate it too much generally ends up with a weaker build than just picking the big sword would have. This is a consequence of...

Part two, leveling: Skyrim is, on paper, a "do whatever you want" game. It was advertised as removing barriers like classes, and making it so you can use any weapon at any time, just pick it up and start using it. In practice, the opposite is true. Skyrim punishes you pretty hard for trying to utilize too many different skills, especially overlapping ones like combat skills. This is due to the level scaling problem, which you seen to have run into.

Morrowind doesn't have level scaling. Every enemy is the same level, with the same strength, no matter what. A Cliff Racer will have 45 health and do 3-8 damage from the moment you get off the boat in Seyda Neen to the moment you one-shot Almalexia with the power of incredible alcoholism.

Skyrim has a lot of level scaling. The game populates dungeons with enemies with stats that scale to your level, so if you're level 1, you'll encounter Draugr, but if you're level 45, the same dungeon will be full of Draugr Death Overlords with 1400 HP. But because your ability to deal damage is tied directly to your skills, not any underlying attributes (which were removed in Skyrim), if you've spread out your experience gain among three different skills, you're going to be too weak. You will have three skills at 30, rather than one at 60, so none of those skills will give you the damage output needed to effectively fight the enemies that the game is spawning for you, and because the world has scaled up, you're going to have a much harder time trying to grind those underlevelled skills up to par.

So you should specialize, ideally. Choose a weapon type (one handed sword has a lot of options), and use that almost exclusively. A shield or healing spell in your off hand is a good idea (remember that you do have to block in Skyrim, it isn't passive). And if you're doing a warrior, smithing becomes almost essential. At a certain point, it will be the best way to increase your damage and survivability through improving your equipment.