Raptor, Bethesda was merely tipping their hat to the mods that they admitted inspired them to implement in New Vegas. If you don't believe me when I say that they don't compare, go to the fallout 3 nexus and look at their
top 100. Really, Bethesda has to take into account some of it isn't for everyone so they call it "Hardcore more," even though there is nothing realistic or challenging about it. You can go a week without water, but you can't go a week without food, for example. Their job is to make it fun for everyone.
Even more amazing, though, is the Oblivion mod community... but I'll save that for TES5.