Well, you said "...not epic, nor engaging," at the top, which I then assumed was a general statement about the game and not specifically the combat. I gathered that you simply enjoyed Oblivion, and not specifically its visceral combat. It wasn't a logic flaw in the review, but just in your personality that I felt. You could have probably mentioned that the storyline is disjointed throughout most of the game, since setting/lore is indeed part of a story.
I still believe it's impossible to go through the game in 20 hours and finish all the side quests, you most likely finsihed them in your subsequent playthroughs. Doing everything in the game can take well over 50 hours, and it's all far more detailed than anything in Oblivion.
Anyway, it just seems you went into the game expecting something else, and you are linking your disappointment with your actual opinion of the game, causing that flipfloping from "I don't like it because it's not what I wanted," to "It's a good game."