You can turn off the active quest and you won't get the pointers.
Yes you can, but game is still easy.
I always liked realistic games and realistic RPGs are my favourite. That's why I like games made by Piranha Bytes and BethSoft the most.
Skyrim imho is as good as patched Gothic 3 (really good game by todays standards) but I would like something more realistic.
For example, I would like to play RPG without journal, inventory, hp bar, char indicators and without hints. Also quests will have to be non-linear and completely independent of my actions or presence (no silly switches when my char get near). Also dialogs would have to be like in those textual adventures where you type the questions and get the answers (most kids nowadays wouldn't be able get any info at all).
In short: you can't carry more than 40/60/80 kilos and run, without bags you can't do anything else while carrying stuff, you manually put stuff into bags you can't fight properly if your limbs are injured (something fallout has but elder scrolls games don't), you have to sleep/eat/drink (unless you have special perk or are an vampire), you don't have automated journal, instead you have to write stuff you think are important, you ask questions you want not the predefined questions, you're leveling in the background and only feedback you will get is from fighting (no stats page) etc.
Now that would be the game I'll willingly waste a quarter of my day. Being 25 years old and someone who's playing actively video games for 14 years, who wasted 3 months of his life on Elder Scrolls III, who saw major improvement in PC graphics both after ESIII and ESIV came out, I must say that Skyrim is really good game by today's standards.
But actually for me, it's the game which belongs to the past and I'm again saddened that 10 years has passed and nothing worth of mention has happened in gaming industry.