yeah games don't automatically drop with good modding support, you have to get lucky with developers taking the time or some mad group taking it apart, and some games won't even reach their peak for decades-->total war attila is about to get it's first total conversion mod, game came out in 2015, they made a map editor from scratch for it. Morrowind isn't even at it's peak yet and modders have already remade the game engine lol.

the secret sauce is unironically organization, games with dedicated teams that formed and stuck together for specific projects steadily push horizons, where games that might be moddable but have independent-minded scenes can burn for a while but go dead after talent leaves and knowledge isn't institutionalized