To your point about small movies, I'd say it's true of many indie games too. It isn't about "doing less with more" more than doing more with more is their issue here. They tried to do everything, and didn't do anything well and didn't try to connect the pieces together to make a solid product.

Factorio, for example, knows exactly what it is and it does it perfectly. Every system in the game ties into the core system of building your factory. Skyrim doesn't know what it is and the pieces are scattered everywhere. Your ship is totally disconnected from everything else (except as a money and skill point sink). Outposts are disconnected from everything else (again, except for those two things). They just had too many resources to spend and didn't set up the foundations to make it all work together.