I think my biggest problem with Skyrims main quest is that the dragons don't actually do anything.
Once you've completed the first quests and experience that first dragon at the western watchtower/learned you are dragonborn, every single dragon attack is a random event. There are practically no special plot relevant conflicts with them in the game. Its all random events and set locations. Any attack is just a meaningless rampage without purpose.
After killing Mirmulnir, the next quest featuring a dragon is A Blade in the Dark, where you watch Alduin resurrect Sahloknir. This serves to establish how Alduin is resurrecting the dragons. Its something that can be repeated a couple times by tracking down dragon mounds at the right time (the one outside Rorikstead is one). Theres also mounds that spontaneously empty off-screen. All of this is nothing but backstory to demonstrate how the dragons have returned.
Kynesgrove itself is irrelevant to this event, the settlement is conveniently just outside the range of the dragon fight. All that matters here is the location a dragon was buried and that its no longer dead.
Windhelm is within spitting distance of Kynesgrove. Close enough that Ulfric Stormcloak himself could gather his soldiers and respond the moment Alduin is spotted flying in. This of course does not happen.
You know what's the next scripted dragon encounter after that? Summoning Alduin to fight on the Throat of the World. In-between Kynesgrove and then the Dragonborn and Blades have infiltrated the Thalmor embassy, refounded the Blades, met Paarthurnax, and found an Elder Scroll in a way too long dwemer ruin.
In all that time Alduin has done nothing except resurrect dragons who themselves quickly kamikaze in pointless attacks against the Dragonborn. The World-eater is not doing a lot of world-eating.
With Alduin wimping out to Sovngarde to recharge, its now up to the Dragonborn to convince Balgruuf to let you trap a dragon in his palace. Note again, Odahviing is summoned to you. He does not take initiative, he was solely responding to the Dragonborns callout.
This is a common theme of the main quest. Many stories have a problem with their heroes being reactive, but here its the antagonists. The dragons don't really do anything direct except respond to your actions. Not only can you complete five major main quests between dragon appearances, you can just ignore it for as long as you can. Because the dragon crisis revolves around you.
One prerequisite to capturing Odahviing is Season Unending. You must either end the civil war or arrange a truce before you can continue. This shows another problem with how the civil war has a larger impact on the world than the dragons do.
People across skyrim will comment on the civil war and its ramifications can be felt everywhere. Not so many people have anything to say about the dragons. Some of those comments are even that they can't do much about the dragons because most of the fighting guards have already left for the civil war.
Cities are being attacked by dragons, yet the war can continue waging without a problem. The greatest impact that Alduin ever had on Skyrim was unintentionally allowing Ulfric to escape in the very first quest.
Shortly after that its over. You battle through Skuldafn, giving us two dragon encounters and only occurrence where a dragon cult ruin/dragon priest is relevant to the main plot. All as nothing but enemies in your way, guarding Skuldafn.
(Bleak Falls Barrow is the only other Nordic ruin to appear in a main quest, but the dragons weren't even back yet other than Alduin and so its basically the same as any other ruin).
You go through Sovngarde, kill Alduin and thats it.
(Part 1)
