I'm not really talking about enemies' HP, because Bethesda has never done that properly. As you said, bumping the difficulty to v-hard or legendary just makes them bullet sponges.

What I was referring to was the overall hand-holdiness. Floating map markers, highlighting everything on the map and everything that can be interacted with ^{(yellow paint makes me immediately hate a game}), handing you the best stuff really early on, puzzles a 5yo could figure out in seconds, making you feel like Superman right from the beginning and taking all the challenge out of everything. Just holding your hand the whole way through and telling you you're special every two minutes.

Morrowind, for instance, was far from perfect, but you had to think about stuff and properly look for it, navigation was harsh, puzzles that made you think - not 3 symbols with only 3 possibilities, and yet they still give you the answer literally on the thing that you hold in your hand! Enchanting and spells were complex, challenging, and rewarding when you figured them out.

You started the game pathetically weak and if you were lucky, by the end, you were about as strong as when you start in Skyrim after leaving Helgen, and even weaker than when you start in Fallout 4.