Most people here kvetching about it put 100 hours into it, so don't feel too defensive. Bethesda's games have a weird draw despite all their shitty aspects, which is something a bunch of us have discussed here before. The fact New Vegas is so respected shows that in the end it was mostly Bethesda's writing, quest design and world building that sucked, as the core gameplay is mostly pretty similar. It's a shame because those are all areas where Morrowind excelled so much, and even despite improvements Bethesda has never gotten close to that again.
I think New Vegas shows that Codexers don't give a damn about good gameplay as long as the writing is good. While I respect that opinion, I simply can't play a game where the moment to moment gameplay is a drag. Even mods can't solve New Vegas' biggest issue: the open world aspect of it is just boring. You can make the combat suck much less, you can add more enemies to fight (Mojave Raiders, Mojave Wildlife), but the map is designed in such a way that it's just predictable: long highways taking you from point A to point B. If you stray too far away from the roads, you will usually find a cave containing maybe a couple of skeletons, nothing more.
The beauty of classic Fallout is that random encounters add the true unpredictability of a real desert, post-apocalytpic setting, without the drag of walking for minutes with nothing happening at all.