I've said before that Morrowind's biggest flaw isn't the combat, but how clunky, convoluted, and generally just difficult to play it is. And when I say "difficult," I don't mean the positive way that implies challenge and a sense of achievement, but the negative way that implies tedious busy work. The inventory/equipment scene, with its tiny icons and forcing you to drag rather than click, is a nightmare. The journal is an incoherent mess, even after you get the expansion that adds the categorization. And the lack of quest markers is nothing more than a tedious time sink. Yeah, I know that last one is going to be controversial, so I'll elaborate. Finding the quest objectives by way of following simple directions is not more challenging, or somehow more indicative of being a smart, mature player than finding the objectives by way of following quest markers. The only difference is that you're constantly having to stop and check your map/journal.
I don't hate Morrowind. It does do a lot of things very well, and I'm still hoping that at some point way down the line I can get back to playing it. But as far as its cult following goes, I suspect that a lot of that stems more from nostalgia and elitism than the actual merits of the game. No, I'm not accusing anyone here of that; I just mean in general.