I never played that, but I can't see how it could be better.
I can see his point. The oldest one of the series I've played was Morrowind, of course - and Morrowind, IMO, has a lot more depth than Oblivion. But I think Oblivion has better execution in some areas.
The archery implementation in ESIV is better, but no crossbows like in ESIII
Fast travel in ESIV is lame, but without guild guides, propylon chambers, invertention spells, mark/recall - I can see why they added it.
The journal in ESIII had WAY more cool and useful information, but ESIV has MUCH better organization for the quests.
Levelled NPCs in un-modded ESIV suck, it's a broken game in that regard.
ESIII's breakout of the weapons and related skills made much more sense.
The telling of you exactly what to do next in ESIV is kinda lame.
I thought of more last night, dragging this morning - bleah