New Vegas does this in that its factions all represent prewar societies or ideologies.

I understand that, but there feels like some kind of disconnect with this idea when it’s presented to the player as “you will be making a big decision that will affect how the world works”. I think that’s why I don’t like the idea that you are progressing the history of new Vegas when in reality the stagnation is the point. In fo3 the main story has its own problems from a narrative standpoint, but it feels more like a survival game in that everything you go through is just to get access to clean water whereas new Vegas puts too much emphasis on “the fate of the Mojave”. The good karma ending of fo3 is closer to a FOA ending than anything presented in NV and I don’t think the game was worse for it. It’s worse for a bunch of other reasons, but not that one really.