See, there shouldn't even be a comparison with action games. Elder Scrolls had a tradition of stat based gameplay before Oblivion.
If Morrowind actually had parry and dodge animations for when your attack missed (like in Drakensang or Neverwinter Nights), nobody would ever have complained that they didn't hit anything at close range or their weapon passing through the enemy and we could still have had stat-based first-person combat. Or at least, they could have introduced a full third-person version with Age of Conan mechanics.
Then again, I play as mage anyway.