I agree, it's the weak point of the games, how immensely dead and empty the areas are, but i do think TSL takes the cake.
I am working on my game right now, but i will get back to modding when i'm sick of it lol
I would like to mention my favorite project in this regard.
It's unfortunately still far from being complete, but it has much going for itself already. I'm talking of redrob41's upscale. He's released a K2 version, too.