Fallout 4 is bland and empty for a fallout game. This is almost entirely due to the settlement mechanic.

You don't need, or want, the creation club. It's just frankly bad cosmetic mods with some few new weapons added, but the weapons aren't added right so you'll run out of ammo for them.

Its also buggy as hell and they never bothered fixing anything. To the point that a large modlist is required just to make the game baseline finished

However, with a decent modlist, and Sim Settlements to fix/remove the tedium of that abysmal system, it becomes a good game.

Edit: equally, because New Vegas is using Bethesda's engine from Fallout 3, it needs a large modlist to make it playable too. But it at its core is a fun game.