Well a poster elsewhere had this to say about Morrowind:
"Morrowind has the most freedom of choice. It is also the oldest and most clunky mechanically. There are no voiced conversations so its a lot of reading. You have branching choices in the Thieves, Mages, and Fighters Guild IIRC but it isn't obvious. If you do them a certain way, you can lock yourself out of joining or finishing other quests. You have 3 political factions you can choose between. You have 2 religions on the island to choose from (or both if that is your preference.) The main quest is pretty linear, but you can lock yourself out of it by killing essential characters and then you have to do the alternate way to end the game."

And I'm pretty sure in Skyrim you can choose to support either the Empire or the Stormcloaks, right? I post on a board where there was a whole topic debating the two choices.

Anyway, general agreement does seem to be what you say - that the true enjoyment of the games comes from exploration and immersion. I just want to be able to roleplay and I need to be able to make choices for that. Being railroaded takes you right out of the RP mindset in my case.

And given that Skyrim is supposed to have the best gameplay, while everyone says Morrowind is clunky and outdated, starting with Skyrim would serve only to make Morrowind even more unbearable, don't you think?