Speaking for myself, I read his post as a typical "This 17 year old game doesn't compare to game X, which came out last year..." Gaming tastes have evolved. Each town had 1-3 or so quests that would cross off. I am playing Skyrim here and there, and I swear I have 20+ and I'm only second level. Not only was Fallout kind of quiet sometimes, but the soundtrack reflected that and it had a barren atmosphere in locations. It wasn't constant action, and that's fine. If he's having trouble, I don't want to be around when he starts bitching about "The Glow." I find that a fantastic location, but it's not a combat or quest extravaganza.
How much innovation was at work in Fallout 2, though? The addressed a lot of the complaints about FO (npcs, cap counting, inventory, whatever) but not a lot of innovation over and above the core FO. They didn't do anything to balance out the SPECIAL system. They added a lot more locations, and did up the difficulty. They went for quality, not quantity, though. The design of the world, creatures, combat, stats, all that was done by the B-team. The A-Team came along and ... added more locations and dialog. Not sure where the masters touches of a top quality shine on Fallout 2, that are not in Fallout 1. Maybe you have some examples that I'm just not thinking of?
I'm not sure what you mean by quality, though. Fun? Stability? Interesting dialogue?