Going back and seeing it now, it looks like nothing special at all, but for the time I remember it being a huge leap forward graphically.
But yeah the graphics are awful and enabling the expansions from day one causes you to suddenly be assassinated in the night when you are still a nobody. On a plus note if you survive and are determined you can use the paralytic effects of the assassin's daggers to win a really powerful sword from a depressed Orc, he wants to die a noble death in combat... Not sure getting paralyzed so that your opponent can drink gallons of Sujamma and smack you with Hulk strength into a wall counts as noble but hey we all have our quirks.
The addictive thing about Morrowind was clearly the stories we told ourselves. You knew the people who would get really hooked because they spent hours on that “what’s your name?” screen.