Sorry, I just have to totally agree with your Fallout assessment. I had a blast with the game, but only after I accepted that the backstory and motivation for Vaulty wasn’t going to help me enjoy the game.

I started a second playthrough on Survival mode and tried to 1) go melee-heavy and 2) play the game like a worried, grieving parent would. It went poorly.

Beatrix Kiddo didn’t take side quests.

As to your main point, I’m super guilty of de-childrening my games out of a great big aversion to putting kids in peril, which I feel like it’d come up, so I don’t. It’s not entirely rational, but neither is parenting I guess. I should keep this in mind in the future, though.