i think that's a quest
it is a quest, but it's not structured as a quest, it allows you to create your own quests based on what you want to do. it's pretty ambitious and im sure far too complex but man, i would have fun with that. when this bandit says there's treasure in the forest, i can choose to get that treasure because i want to. when a bandit tells me there's treasure and then i start a side quest, i'm not obligated to find the treasure in order to complete an arbitrary task, regardless of whether or not i really want that treasure.
i feel like the haunted house quest in markarth is a good example of a cool quest because it gives you a lot of free roam. you hear about this haunted house,and see this priest who asks you if you want to help him. don't want to spoil what happens, but you encounter molag bal after this crazy experience, and he offers you a badass weapon if you help him. now you've got a choice to make for something you want - you want this weapon because you know it's powerful, because it was offered by something of great power, and you have a real moral choice as what to do. if i made this quest, i would've not had the priest by the door, i would've have him at the temple, and you have to seek him out to ask about the house, and then he would ask you to accompany him and say "alright meet me there tonight".
ofc it goes back to what skyrim quests are at the core: vehicles for delivering content to the player, rather than vehicles for a compelling narrative. it's what makes the things like daedric collection interesting; they're just things you can do to get awesome stuff. they don't have to tell a big story, they're just fun little diversions to get something worthwhile. that would definitely be a more interesting and more fitting approach, esp if you could figure out how to still deliver whatever minimal narrative you're trying to push with a lore-heavy game
but even so, despite the fact that daedric artifacts are real cool, i never felt like i respected them. i just got em, i didn't really want to get them. i think a lot of designers assume people want things, and thus if you don't give them what they want easily they won't enjoy their game, and this is true to games that are too difficult, but at the same time i don't want the ebony mail - i just want its effect. but now that i've researched, and sought out this piece of armor, i want it due to the prestige, cus some badass dude wore this armor and now i can wear this armor. it would make things matter more. i dunno.
like what was cool about Smough's hammer in Dark Souls was that Smough totally owned you with this hammer, and the entire level your hearing about how he grinds up peoples bones with this hammer, and nefarious stuff, so when you finally defeat him in this arduous battle and get his hammer you want to use it not just cus it's powerful, but because it has this history around it.
