January 15, 2012 2:12 PM EST
I agree fully with you, i don't want all the cities to have look a like fillers but if the cities in Skyrim were to be more populated you could not expect everyone to have a quest or something significant to say to you, sure they could have names and radiant routines but their sole purpose would be to make the cities become more believable, hence they would be "generic NPCs".
also on a side note, GTA without filler npcs = empty city!!