Bethesda aren't, and Oblivion and Fallout 3 have plenty of settlements.
I can't speak for fallout, but Oblivion looks like utter . There are like 5 NPC's copy-pasted throughout the entire game world. Every single dungeon looks exactly the same. It might be HD content, but it's the same content recycled a thousand times over. It was pretty clear to me when I played Oblivion that they sacrificed a good deal in terms of visuals so they could bloat the game with so much stuff.

I agree completely with Sakaguchi, although I am sure there are plenty of games that contradict his statement.To me, visuals are the single least important aspect in a video game. The absolute last thing I want is to take a linear trip through uncanny valley that lasts 30 hours when the story sucks, the characters suck, the gameplay has been done before, and the voice actors are the same 5 people repeating the same 20 statements for 30 hours. A good looking game isn't enough to make a game good. It is enough to make a game bad, though, if the majority of your funds are spent on visuals.

But even then, I still prefer the rich coloration in the visuals of games like Chrono Trigger than I prefer the monotonous grey that shades every single xbox360 and ps3 game I've ever seen. I'd much rather see creativity and vibrancy in my graphics than grim accuracy.