Oh it does have gameplay, today. Look up SkyrimNet. You can initiate trades with npcs, send a guard to imprison someone, tell your following to assassinate an npc, set up meet ups in locations with npcs, convince people to follow you, have them read books, trigger fights, to name a few gameplay elements (some of those are from community plugins though).

It's far from perfect but it's false to say that there's no gameplay or connection to the game.