>Umm, what do they eat?
>Don't they know Megaton would be filled with rainwater?
>T-the lore...
I COULD NOT CARE LESS.
All that matters is the DREAM.
Games where you can kill nearly whoever you want weren't abundant back then and there aren't enough now.
Were a lot of the characters flagged as essential? Yes. The game just paved the way for a better game letting you do just that, making people jizz themselves for a decade and a half.
Jeets might shit on New Vegas with troonposting but I'm eternally grateful to Fallout 3 for helping to lay the groundwork.