Wasn't there a couple of modders who was making the older elder scrolls game into the Skyrim engine? Wouldn't it be easier on Bethesda to just hire them and other talented modders to do it?

I stopped paying attention to Bethesda when they released that Creator's Club (or whatever it was called) bullshit for FO4. That shit broke all the fucking mods I had, then they had the audacity to request $20 for a mod that was already freely available. I lost any respect I had for then in that moment.
I'm not giving them another dime...doesn't mean I won't still play their games though.

If anything this has raised my bar for TES 6. I didn't play 4 just as you did and sunk an ungodly amount of time into 5. I also played fallout 3 at the time of launch so I feel like I'm fairly versed in Bethesdas formula.

The progress from 4 to 5 is obvious. They put a lot of love into making Skyrim better than its predecessor in tons of ways. With the absolute flop of Starfield, they're putting all their chips into TES 6 and they know it. They're going to stick to the core gameplay that everyone expects, but how they expand and improve upon it is really what will make or break them. If they get the story telling down, it's all up to the mechanics of the game and design of the world.

My bar has absolutely raised by them putting this remaster out.

I think the remaster looks awful. Not only did they take out the soul, they decided to copy the aesthetic of ESO from the washed-out colors down to the shitty combat animations.

I really wish the people behind ESO would get fired, but they keep getting rewarded.

Maybe they're trying to get potential players of Elder Scrolls VI so hyped that they'll still play the new game even if it's sold 'games as a service' style

in which case, fuck that