I also feel like cranking up the quality of scenes like this is just gonna make it more jarring when you talk to an NPC, the world freezes, and their cold, dead eyes stare into your soul as their mouth awkwardly wiggles around and corny voice acting is played at you.

Morrowind had only a couple voiced NPCs, and none of them zoomed into them during conversation. Are you thinking of Oblivion?

I love it, but projects like OpenMorrowind and Daggerfall Unity have given me new appreciation for the older games I struggled with as a kid.