The idea of Morrowind always sounded cool, but I could never get into it. I think I grabbed the Xbox version for ten bucks at a Best Buy back in the day. I spent roughly a half hour designing my character, spawned on a boat, and saw a nearby treasure chest. I took stuff out of it (as one does in a freaking RPG), and was then murdered for stealing by nearby guards.
It was surprising to me, yes. I wouldn't say I grew up exclusively with JRPGs (I did play the Eye of Beholder games on DOS), but those were the majority. And as you're probably aware, it is perfectly acceptable in JRPGs to break into people's houses to loot everything that is not nailed to the ground, and shatter their outdoor pots in search of currency.
I think my frustration was not that stealing is a crime in the game so much as the game's UI didn't really do anything to warn me that I was stealing. If the UI had maybe coded the action in red font with "Steal plate" instead of grey text "Take plate", I probably would have reconsidered.
Not sure if you're aware, but this is exactly what Skyrim does. The on-screen prompt shows red text and "Steal plate" instead of white "Take plate". I wasn't 100% sure what triggered people to come after you though, sometimes I'd steal something and nobody would bat an eyelid. Other times I'd be on my own in a room with a closed door, steal a book or something and someone would come from the other side of the building and give me a talking to.
Yeah, there's an icon that lets you know whether you're visible while sneaking, but nothing like Skyrim's red/white indicator as to whether an item you're looking at is owned or not. Although there are nowadays mods to indicate owned items.
I understand this, but I would look upon it as a failure of all the other RPGs up to that point. You really shouldn't be able to steal from chests with little to no skill in direct sight of guards. You can come back later and loot them when you're much stronger or your sneak is up far enough or other more specific skills are high enough but you won't really need to since you'll be amazingly rich by that point anyway.
Like real life, you can't steal while people are watching :) You probably needed to level that stat, a bit also. It is deeply advantageous to play a klepto character
Back onto the shelf it went.