I guess this goes a bit offtopic in terms of this thread but since you ask here is my opinion on the points you mentioned.
The world is beautiful and has a lot of detail if you pay attention, mainly because of really well written books or messages that you can find. At least for me all the exploring feels better than in skyrim because most of the places on the map have some kind of backstory to them that you can finde. The quality varies of course and it is nowhere close to a Witcher 3 for example but still pretty damn good.
The story of the game is where it really shines. Not even because it has the most exciting plot or the most badass events but because it deals with a lot of social and philosophical topics that are represented by well written characters and awesome dialogs. The german voiceovers are awesome, hope the english are too.
No level scaling in Enderal. Thank god for that.
I don't really know what you mean by badly placed loot but I myself enjoy finding stuff in Enderal, especially since there are set items!
Enderal is harder than Skyrim but not only because of the combat which is still pretty managable depending on your class of course. Money is scarce and you need money to level up your skills but also to get better equipment or spells. There is a lot of decision making involved in this and since you can't really be the "Master of everything"-Dragonborn here, these decisions really do matter and impact your gameplay.
Since you are a gothic fan, just like myself, you will love Enderal. It feels like they took a lot of inspiration from the old Gothics and even improved what they took.
However, back to topic! Didn't want to take over the thread!
