It's actually improved a TON since launch. I'm not talking about a No Man's Sky situation where it's 100x better, but better.
Also two huge points: Fallout 76 is free on Game Pass, and works really well coop with friends. Those features go a LONG way.
I am still flabbergasted at how far that game came along, and then on top of that added a whole ass VR mode that to date is one of the coolest, most fleshed-out "true gaming" VR experiences I've ever had. Not poorly implemented like "woowee you're playing the game but have full-directional vision, still have to click to swing the sword though," not gimmicky like a rails shooter or slice-to-the-beat game, just a whole ass videogame in VR like I hoped it would be as a kid.
I still don't understand how they funded continual development like that but I'm happy about it.
However I would say if you liked fallout 4 then current 76 is worth it on sale especially if you have a friend to join.
I played 76 for about two hours and gave up. It's just not the same. I guess that's not inherently bad, if people want different. But I wouldn't say that if you liked 4 that it is definitely worth playing 76.
Honestly I no longer resent the Bethesda games but for whatever reason despite replaying 1 & 2 multiple times (including in recent years) I just can’t get into the 3d ones. NV was the closest but it still didn’t manage to grab my attention for more than a weekend. 3, 4 & (via gamepass) 76 didn’t even get that far (a couple of hours each).
This kind of defeats the purpose of the whole game though.
I liked the game much better before they 'fixed' it by adding NPCs- before that the desolation was just creepy, and there was a lot of storytelling in the notes and tapes you'd find. But it is pretty much just wandering around an open world- there are grinds if you want them, but mostly I've just used them to guide our meandering. And the main quest line is ok, it's just not as extensive as doing 3 or 4 with all the dlc.
What is weird is that people who don't like it just can't accept that it's just not to their taste, and that maybe they're not as big Fallout fans as they think- every post about it has people who act like it's a crime against humanity, whether they've played it or not.