IMO the orsimer were better before Skyrim retconned them as a bunch of hillbillies living in feuding enclaves.
Before skyrim they were a minority who rose again and again from multiple attempted genocides and became the shield-arm of the imperial legion.
They could've had a variety of orcs with different worldviews, desires, aspirations, and goals, but the most you get (which IS at least something) is some commentary on the sexist traditions of the polygamy system within the Strongholds, and an orc joining the Forsworn during a prison break.
Actually hold on, WITH those two examples, there's a lot you could do:
With new additions to the lore from ESO, we "now" know that gender has had a complex relationship within the orsimer (which it didn't use too). Ghorza left home with her brother specifically to avoid the arranged marriages and pigeonholing that happens to women who stay within the strongholds. Lash is disowned by her mother for merely leaving Dushnikh Yal for a better life when she wasn't supposed to. Borgahk is uneasy about her future if she remains in the Stronghold, and will leave at the player's urging, with almost hilarious ease - this could've been a whole quest with consequences and intrigue and discussions of the culture, but nope, 1 Speech check or a bribe and it's done, without a single mention from anyone else. Yatul and Bolar specifically use their positions within the hierarchy to control Narzulbur through their nephew, in a blatantly incestuous way, with Bolar being implied to have poisoned her nephew's other wives, showing that this kind of environment pits bad bitches against each other for no gain and all loss. That's all something! Even if it's only surface-level.
In all these examples, there's no engagement or larger discussion or storyline, just dialogue and a few token fetch quests associated. The Dragonborn tugs their collar, maybe recruits a companion, and leaves it at that.
There are even historical examples of shaftedness: Mortuga being relegated to the annals of history as "Torug's greatest forge-wife" despite coming from an era where that wasn't a thing does her a disservice as she was the one who ordered and arranged for the walls of the first Orsinium which still stand to the modern day. "Forge-mother" Alga at least gets some recognition and fleshing out, being the leader of "extremist" Trinimac orcs and engineering a conflict to consildate power and relative peace, but even then it's not flattering. She's just the scheming magical and matriarchal force behind her son's kingship, the deceiver man-behind-the-man that bookends the player's experience with Orsinium's politics, like a thriller movie.
Really, the lore they invented for orsimer in Skyrim is an obvious carbon-copy of the lore they came up with for the minotaurs in Oblivion. Isolationist bandit-societies where the big man rules by force and has many wives, like some knocker's idea of lion pride hierarchies.
And it's stupid because unlike a lot of other stuff in TES that can be chalked up to truncation and shorthand, the Strongholds explicitly work on the idea that the chieftain is the only one allowed to bang and have kids. That's right, Whiterun is canonically a bustling trade capital with a population of thousands not counting the endless fields and pastures beyond it's walls, but Dushnikh Yal is explicitly a hovel with all of 12 people, because it has to be, otherwise the town would've collapsed centuries ago.
And the orsimer and reachmen have traditionally inhabited the same lands as one another, living the same lifestyles as one another for millenia. There is specific mention of conflicts between the two in ESO in Wrothgar, and there is no doubt an even longer history of conflict and cooperation as they are pitted against each other, AND the Nordic raiding, the Redguard's genocides, and the slavery from the Bretons. I think it would be neat to really explore the dynamics of both groups, especially in a new era where both groups face destruction from outside forces and their traditional enemies have taken blows but are more nationalistic than ever.
Even Largashbur and the Cursed Tribe, which is the perfect opportunity to discuss orsimer beliefs, religion, and culture face to face with Malacath/Trinimac himself, during his Daedric Quest, comes to not be much more than an excuse to get Volendrung. Wow.
It's all just... wasted potential.
