For starters I don't give two shits about the circlejerk, nor do I have any super care about nastalgia. The two games are good, but it depends on what you want from the series that matters. If you're looking for quests, character progression, story, unique zones or just overall a really detailed game... Morrowind wins outright, no questions about it.

However, if you're into visuals, combat, dragons, hirables or just overall far better mechanics then Skyrim is the game you're going to be picking.

Lets face it, Skyrim quests are short and lackluster and the lore is weak in comparison to Morrowind. I think this is partially due to the addition of voice acting. In Morrowind everything about the world was open for you to read. You can't get deep into Skyrim lore unlesss you hunt for books, which don't have that much to say anyways (I've read them). They aren't going to VA everything they had in Morrowind so naturally you cut out all the lore and only voice the quest related stuff. Then the guilds in Skyrim just feel like additional quests while in Morrowind they actually feel like you're joining a guild. Morrowind is also designed so that quests conflict with each other. This opens up the whole choice system without actually giving you that bullshit choice menu that games do now. The world, lore and quests are so rich in Morrowind but... all of this is moot for a person who rather have combat.

It's no question as to which game is more developed in combat. Skyrim is nearly everything we have been wishing for in the series. Morrowind gets so unbearable because of its combat system. Most people can't even go back into Morrowind because of this. I know most of the people in r/gaming debate Morrowind being better even though I know most probably can't bring themselves to replay the game. The mechanics of it were horrendous, though IMO it was the best one in the early 3D stages of gaming (cue nastalgia).

Now other stuff like diseases and whatnot is up in the air. I personally love the detail that Morrowind had with every feature. Having that even more hostile environment was a great experience to me. I beat all the non-random quests in Skyrim and didn't once encounter a disease. Some people like that, I just felt like that was lacking. Skyrim is a very safe world outside of combat, even in combat it's far too easy. I had to mod the shit out of that game to make the world even remotely interesting.

Which leaves mods. At face value Morrowind is much more developed than Skyrim. This is because modding wasn't as popular and compatibility was low. Skyrim on the other hand was built around the idea of modding the game. The world is void of settlements & mobs to make room for player buildings and less than half of the items in the world aren't even usuable, this is to leave room for crafting mods. So yes, at face value Morrowind wins because the design purpose was to make a fantastic open world game, but Skyrim wins because it allows for an even greater game through mods.

As for my opinion :P. I love both, but I admit I grew bored of Skyrim much faster because it's a very short game. Morrowind held my attention through proper quest progression and the fact that I always feel like I have something to do. So I pick Morrowind, which also has fantastic replay value. Skyrim has none of that small replay value for those that like new characters, but the game is designed so you can play everything on your first run.