Maybe handcraft the content instead of doing procdural generated. Also maybe make compelling npcs. Oh and make the universe believable. The non important npcs in starfield are ugly boring nobodies, and there is no aliens.
They could of done different factions and alien races that take over areas of a planet. Make wars between them.
Let you join them. Have quests to join and go up ranks.
Expeditions to become a mining expert, upgrade ship and eventually form your own fleet, with fleet mechanics and trade requisitions, along with the pirate activity that goes along with that.
Thats just a few angles that could of been done.
Did starfield do that? No They had it human only and they couldn't even bother to model any remnant of old Earth. They don't even explain why Earth is a desert when you go to it by random travelling (apparently it is in the story, but i never got that far, I put the game down after a few hours as bg3 was calling).
They also didn't even have a damn local map in the game. All their games had this and it made it a chore in starfield to go anywhere. Apparently, this was added after the fact.
RPG fans are not asking for shorter games, they are asking for quality games. More handcrafted, less design by committee (which includes no woke influences) , more design by passion of a talented small group who has a vision. Then hire to support that vision using art and story and scripting, etc... Those people work for the small group with the vision and the passion for the project.
Bethesda is out of touch it seems. They lost the plot when they strarted doing fallout 76 and youngblood.
Fallout 4 was their last good game, imo.