Oh yes I'm aware of the intent. I'm a lore head and have played all the previous elder scrolls games as well. I just didn't expect basically all of of them to be like that. It's ironic because I think out of the 3 factions AD has the best and most competent leader. She even seems to show some growth and progression as character periodically throughout the game.

I feel like my OP came off as I don't enjoy the story, I definitely do. I
There are a lot of layers, it's not just the big baddie threat. It actually feels more like it's a backdrop to their cultural, social, and political issues. The npcs interactions do make me cringe from time to time though 😅 like excuse me, what did you just say? Just savage.

I park any crafters in Alinor, and generally like the old world resort-like feel the island offers. Yeah, many residents remind me of candidates from Monty Python's "Upper Class Twit of the Year". I suppose every village has it's idiot, some more than others... many of these elves are blinded by prejudice, and overcoming it is part of the story. I own the boat too, so that kind of anchors me to the zone as well.

To be honest, that attitude is much more prevalent in the main quest than the rest of the zone, most of the friendly high elves in Summerset seem to have been relegated to side quest characters. Which probably makes sense since the story has you dealing with a lot of nobility, who tend to be the absolute worst of the worst even by the race's standards. I remember largely feeling the same way about the high elves when first playing Summerset, but taking a stroll around the isle and doing the side content made me like them a lot more. Not that the side quests don't have their share of jerks, but it's pretty minor compared to the main one. I'd thought that doing the story with a high elf character would make the reception warmer, and it does to a small extent, but even though nobody calls you 'nebarra' to your face, they're still far from welcoming. Auridon is definitely the more pleasant of the two isles when it comes to the people.

Yes, that pretty much sums it up. None of the races were designed to be flawless, so you just have to take the good with the bad. The altmer certainly have a few practices that would be considered immoral by modern standards (abandoning hulkynds for example), but whether or not they are overall any worse than the other nations of Tamriel is tough to objectively say. As for the khajiit, well, their feline instincts are just often incompatible with the usual widely accepted property laws, hence the distrust.