SH5 seems to have a LOT more for the modders to work with, especially with the scripting and new node features.
Game design is tricky, especially when you work for a huge publisher like UbiSoft who honestly only cares about money. Smaller game studios can put more passion into their games since they are creating art. Larger publisher owned studios are forced to extrude revenue streams, which leaves little room or time for art or passion or quality.
Friend of mine is a game designer and has told me how early into a project they'll come up with 400+ pages of ideas and things to put into a game and end up having to slash that down to 40 pages or so to actually begin the project and only 20 of those pages/ideas might actually make it to release due to development time and budget allowed. Thankfully Silent Hunter gives the players the tools to add back in those 400 pages of ideas.