Yeah I am not exactly saying it's inherently a bad mechanic, just that the execution of it was bad or at least didn't age well ( imo ).
Then again I don't think it's only a matter of age, I don't like how it works in Pathfinder either.
Still love the game but I wish they made that aspect of it feel better.
There's a dodge animation but it's pretty lackluster and I think that if you're wearing heavy armor and get hit then you should hear it.
It makes sense for a Monk for example to be dodging attacks all the time when not getting hit, but if you're a Knight in full plate then your armor should be doing the heavy lifting there in terms of animation and audio.
Edit: Look at around 1:30 here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLH0fl3lv_o
I think that's a pretty good way of going about it.
Bit too complex for Morrowind perhaps but just one example.
In Morrowind if someone was wearing heavy armor for example they could have metal on metal sound effects and if not have a small dodge animation or at least make it sound a bit more like dodging.