I think when he meant clean is the FPS view having minimalistic UI.
I concede this is a good point.
But the moment you open the inventory that 'console ports benefit us' goes out of the window.
morans.
Let me blow your fucking minds.
But skyrim *hides* bars when they are full.
Actually, hiding unneeded information (bar not visible implied full, for instance) is a good thing.
However, it's about *the* only thing that's good about Skyrim's GUI and it's completely independent of control method.
And then Skyrim UI fails to display relevant information - I'm speaking of active effects here, forcing you to delve deep into menus to learn for example whether your summon has been destroyed, lost or depawned, when are your buffs running out and what effects you've been hit with.
It also features completely unnecessary exploration spoiler (compass - you can enable in-world quest markers if you need those, and compass iteslf isn't strictly necessary and could be implemented in much subtler and less conspicuous manner - see System Shock 2) and fails to hide ugly, blocky, console crosshair when it's not in use.
And that's relatively good adventuring FPP GUI.
Underneath lie horrors. Lists without icons, sorting or information columns, hotkeying mechanics that involves navigating two lists, many clicks and is impotent when trying to, for example, select hand you want to use and general clusterfuck of pure evil and design ineptitude.
Compare with clean, functional and customizable Morrowind GUI on PC.