about three hours in when the main quest takes you to the Thalmor embassy and you learn that Stormcloak is secretly a Thalmor asset and the civil war is all about weakening the empire from the inside
Yes, three hours in when you do nothing but the main quest. I put off getting the horn of Jurgen Windcaller for some time because its barrow was reallly out of the way, and I had no quests to do in the area. I did get around to reading their notes on Ulfric, but you need to remember that being an 'asset' doesn't mean he's collaborating with the Thalmor. If anything, he must hate them more than the Empire. After all, if it weren't for the Aldmeri Dominion and their White-Gold Concordat, he'd have a lot fewer reasons to instigate a rebellion. But you're right on the other count: It's in the Thalmor's interest to maintain the state of civil war, and either side winning would allow the Empire (and possibly an independent Skyrim) to fortify themselves against the Aldmeri Dominion.
So if we consider our real enemies to be the Thalmor, then the worst option is to do nothing. Who, then, had we better support?
honestly, i'm considerably more entertained by the caves in Minecraft because, despite only using four different blocks, you never really know what you're going to find when you explore, and your exploring has a significant effect on the surrounding area. The random caves create a real sense that you're actually exploring somewhere, not just hacking through a short series of small rooms to get to the end of it.
Yeah, the whole dungeon layout is quickly becoming a trope of itself. Enter, kill the mooks, kill the chief, loot the big chest, and open the secret passage that leads back to the entrance. But even if every cave and barrow follows this layout, they're doing a pretty good job of making the individual locations feel unique rather than just copy-paste jobs from a cave you encountered three hours earlier. I recall critics saying that other Elder Scrolls games were far more guilty of this.
I like exploring caves in Minecraft as well, but I disagree with the notion of 'you don't know what you're going to find'. I know exactly what you're going to find: More caves, more lava, more ores, maybe an abandoned mineshaft, and almost definitely not a stronghold. Minecraft gives you the thrill of going where no man has gone before, which entertained me for more than a year before getting old, but you really can't compare it to exploring an expertly crafted world-stage that is alive with stories both past and ongoing. Even if all you really do is kill the majority of the performers.
I want to mention the thing I found in the glaciers around Winterhold that really cements the feeling that the world of Skyrim has a history. You know what I mean?
It was the frozen mammoth that was thawing out of the glacier wall, with Dwarven arrows and spears still sticking out of its hide. Combined with the knowledge that all the Dwarves collectively disappeared ages ago, it was a really powerful moment of reality.