If you loved old CRPGs I think you'll like this. I grew up with the Might & Magic games and while Skyrim is faaaaaar less of an RPG than those are the Elder Scrolls series has similar roots, and it shows up in Skyrim.
Basically the core RPG aspect of the game (and series) is leveling up your skills by repeated use rather than XP, and after you've leveled enough skills your character will level up, giving you more health, stamina or magicka, and also offering you one of a large number of perks in each skill.
There's a lot of fun in simple exploration finding new towns, dungeons, items and whatnot but it's not to the same level as BotW, though overworld exploration isn't really the major focus of the game anyway. Instead there's a much bigger focus on dungeons/caves/ruins and just interiors in general.
It's a really good game despite having plenty of flaws, it's certainly worth a try if you like RPGs and open world games. I'd argue Morrowind is much better but Oblivion is worse than both for what that's worth.
. And I refuse to play ESO.
