I don't see a divergent path. Oblivion and Skyrim both come bundled with modding tools and have an enormous community of modders and a wealth of mods.

Bethesda themselves have also released a few really good expansions to each of their games (Tribunal, Shivering Isles, Dragonborn to mention one from each game since Morrowind) as well as a few smaller but satisfying DLCs (Hearthfire for instance).

That they also misstepped with a few shamefully overpriced minimal mods deserves being called out but does not undo any of the above.