I would claim the opposite, but ok.
The improvements they made in this aspect are necessary ones imo.
Sadly, they need to do a lot of work creating new scenes because of the new terrain system, but having more scenes is even not the main advantage, I would say.
I couldn't agree more, settlements need to be more alive, filled with motion and provide more options of interactions with buildings, objects, and people. The challenge here is providing interactions that go in line with the rest of the objectives of early, mid- and late gameplay.
This is the problem with current quests too, spending time doing them feels so insignificant because they give less value compared with, for example, farming bandits (another repetitive game mechanic). The value you get for quests needs to be more than just money because even if they match the money you making from fighting bandits (per time invested) one would always choose the fighting because there is plenty more fun and interaction than going through dialogs and deliver some items somewhere or whatever.
And then devs just keep adding more of the same rubbish thinking more of it will fill something but it only stinks more and more.
QUESTS NEED TO BE RETHOUGHT AND REWORKED