While I have no love lost for Microsoft and Xbox, I do love Bethesda, and every single game they have put out has been my favorite for that year going all the way back to Daggerfall (yes norms, I've been on board the BGS train since before you fuckers knew they existed)
I am obviously really very excited for Starfield, but I am also not wondering if it might not be smart to delay it out of this year into the next:
They need to hit a higher level of polish than they usually do
Bethesda games usually launch with a lot of jank and lack of polish, and they always got a free pass for this. This made sense back in the day; back in the day, open world games were pretty rare to begin with, and Bethesda's games had unmatched scope, interactivity, and design that the jank felt like a fair trade-off for. However, in the last decade, open world games have not only become dime a dozen (literally every game now seems to be open world), but the scope and polish of open worlds has evolved massively too. When you are releasing games like Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, and especially Tears of the Kingdom, with massive open worlds and almost no jank (in the latter's case in spite of an insane amount of interactivity) . At this point we have seen a lot of great open worlds of all types (story focus? RDR2 and TW3. Combat focus? Elden Ring. Adventure and exploration focus? BOTW and TOTK. Ubisoft style template done with extremely high levels of polish and quality? Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima). Bethesda jank is harder to ignore now.
This is an important game
Starfield is Bethesda's first new IP launch in decades. It is their first single player game in eight years. It is their first game since Fallout 76 and Fallout 4, which have been considered disappointments to different events (unfairly for Fallout 4, but I get it). This game is important for Bethesda to show they still have the "it" factor they used to back in the day.
This is, of course, also an important game for Xbox. Starfield will be their first shot at a Zelda/God of War style killer app. And sure, it would suck for Xbox's 2023 if the game got delayed out of this year, but it will suck even worse for Xbox if it launches broken, incomplete, or buggy (look at Redfall or Halo Infinite). They won't get many more second chances. Take the time to do it right.
The elephant in the room sucking up all the oxygen
Let's be honest, a BGS game release should be an event, but there is an 800 pound gorilla in the room sucking up all the oxygen, and that's TOTK. Everything this year will be compared to TOTK. Critics and media will get into contests to see who can get most hyperbolic and contrived with their praise for it and comparisons with it. This happens every year - in 2022 it was Elden Ring. In 2017 it was BOTW. In 2015 it was Witcher 3. In 2013 it was TLOU.
Starfield should command everyone's attention when it comes out. It should be an event launch that is celebrated on its own merits, rather than constantly being compared to TOTK. Get some distance from the TOTK release, and launch in 2024, when it can get the benefit of polish and also be appreciated for being great on its own terms, rather than constantly being compared to Zelda.
So all of this is to say, I think they should delay it out of this year. It will suck in the short term, but I think this is what is best for the game's long term prospects, and for BGS, and even Xbox.