Many of these points being sold as negatives I view as positives. Guess that's just how it goes.

For instance

A Lack of direction at the start of the game aside from vague goal of 'get revenge on Benny'.

Is great. I don't want an RPG to just be pushing me from waypoint to waypoint, having a breadcrumb mystery out the gate is directly conducive to making the most out of an open-world exploration game

Which:

Plus the environment in New Vegas just isn't interesting enough in my books to warrant any incentives in wandering off the beaten path.) -No reasons to go out of your way to explore

Is just pure subjectivity. I thought the Mojave was wonderful to explore. There was a relatively safe highway system giving way to unknown/unsafe wastes. Knowing that you could stay on the road and be relatively safe or venture off at any point to explore was, to me, exactly the right tone. But either way, just saying effectively "I don't like deserts so it was bad to explore" isn't really a critique and in the context of a post-apocalyptic wasteland just seems particularly pointless comment to make.

-General exploration isn't rewarded because you don't have the right quest that involves that location.

Did this guy even play the game?