Skyrim got the "everything is the far Northern part of Northern Europe" aesthetic end of the stick, which is very grey, tundra-like, and desaturated. I also think the "everything is dark and gritty and grey" aesthetic that came about somewhere in the 2000s had an impact.
This is especially funny to because Skyrim was THE game that popularized ENB. You couldn't avoid picture of bright and flashy modded Skyrim everywhere on the internet. Seems like even in the days of the "everything is dark and gritty and grey", people still wanted some eye candy.
