Yeah, NV was more Post-apocalyptic Western rather than Post-apocalyptic Hellscape, and the writing was far more solid. Still, better story-telling is not the same as better roleplaying. NV was not much different from FO3 in that regard.
If we ignore the UI design and technical aspects, I'd say that the only complaint I'd actually lend my ear to would be a subjective one, namely that the map is too densely packed. Whether this is due to limitations on other platforms or if it's a conscious design choice, I don't know, but while you can still wander all over the place and spend a lot of time doing so you will be stumbling on things constantly rather than "wandering the wastes" like in the predecessors.
This is both a good and a bad thing, and I'm honestly not entirely sure where I land on that scale.
Oh, and one more thing I do somewhat miss from NV: Ammo crafting. Maybe it's in there somewhere and I just haven't found it, but where I could sacrifice ammo amount for better ammo through crafting in NV, here a shotgun shell is just a shotgun shell, with no differences between them. This is obviously offset by an extremely better and more complex item customization mechanic (weapons, armor and even chemical crafting where you can create, combine and do whimsical things with chems and explosives), but I still miss it a bit.