I think I played this game too late. The magic system is amusing, and the game is pretty enough. But the wiki dialogue and minimal narrative kind of sucked the enjoyment out of it for me. [Grammar?] Also, cliff racers!
I'm not sure it's about playing it too late, maybe it's just not to your liking. I'm replaying it now, in earnest, after very many years and having lots of fun.
I really like the dialogue system and consider it a positive. It's a good way of showing keywords that the player can get more information on while also making them stand out to help the player remember them. This extends to the journal where you can review given quest, what's been said and so on.
I'd say it's also more natural than the common, or typical, system where games put words in your mouth, with a selection of a few poorly worded truncated sentences that often don't mean what they should and where despite the number of options presented they all point to basically saying one of two things while poorly pretending there's more.
This feels more like I'm picking topics out of what someone says and they then react/reply, while the game almost never puts any words in my mouth.
Would have to disagree about there being minimal narrative, though NPCs don't force all of the information on you they can reveal a decent amount and then there's loads of books and scrolls informing you about what's going on and then far more about what's happened in the past. Not only from multiple perspectives but also some accounts which are propaganda and some candid secret truth (again from a perspective).
I have little problem with Cliff Racers and often wonder if it's just a trend to complain about them more than actual hatred, their A.I movement can be annoying if you have no ranged attack no denying that but I've never had issue with them and raise an eyebrow to those that genuinely do more so since we now have a much greater view distance than in the "vanilla" game.
Especially in a game that has Slaughterfish, seriously anyone wants an enemy to hate on or complain about in any game look no further. They can smell you a mile away the moment you enter the water and swarm like flying jaws towards your face and anus, out of the darkness stunning you with every hit while you try to scamper out of the vision limiting water, meanwhile the game is warning you that you're drowning, the joys (gets even better in dark underwater caves with not water surface). Seriously in a game that has Slaughterfish I'm more likely to roll my eyes at someone complaining about Cliff Racers. Hope I don't sound hostile, I'm having a laugh though also sincere.
Morrowind has far more worthwhile things to complain about than the Cliff Racers, seriously it has some ridiculous flaws, in an otherwise wonderful game.