No external assets? I don't know if it works like that the same way on the Xbox One, but doesn't that eliminate a huge majority of mods and the reason for them in the first place?

Well, Bethesda likely just didn't want to be hands on.  For one, modding has thrived from a hands off approach and has vast, established communities Bethesda doesn't want to damage.  Second, the last time they got kinda hands on was mod selling on Steam which was such a spectacular trainwreck it was canceled mere days after it launched.  So that made them really steer clear of hands on since.  And lastly, more hands on = more liable.  If Bethesda gave lots of official help and hands on moderation, they could get in trouble for what mods contain.  For example, when we over at MERP got the C&D from WB, if Bethesda was all hands on with modding, they could have been dragged in.  

As for external assets, that's an interesting line.  I think this is more about mod theft than ripping from other games which is already a no no unless the game dev has said it is ok (CD Projekt Red gave permission to any modders to use Witcher 2 assets for example).  But mods are harder to protect and the Xbone launch saw a TON of mods using assets without permission, sometimes causing problems for users and lots of confrontation among the community, especially when sometimes mod creators got bombarded with complaints over mods they didn't make but used their assets or were credited to them by thieves.

I'm pretty sure Xbox One doesn't have this rule, which should mean more available mods on the system.  Objectively, that makes the Xbox One the better choice if mods are important to you.  Subjectively?  You'll have to look at mods that use outside assets and then decide how much those bring to the game.  A mod that tweaks the stupid Fallout 4 Survival save system so that it's not frustrating?  That should be allowed on the PS4.  Being able to wear the costume of the main character from another game?  Probably not.  Massive and complex mods that offer long quests with new characters and companions?  Probably need a PC for that.

I still think the crux of this was with now each one wanted to deal with legal issues.  Betheda's approach is to put everything up and say, "if you've got a problem then go file a DMCA takedown request."  Sony, I think, wanted everything to be checked before it was uploaded.  

Then you make new ones, kickass ones that are only on the PS4.  VGChartz Skyrim and Falllout 4 Mods Team anyone?

I think this was less on Bethesda's part and more Sony caving in after negative backlash.

Those are bullshots surely? PC renders?
In only 5 years it went from looking like this on ps3 to that?!

you dont really know what happened, maybe they will now quality controll their mods on PS4 somewhat

That's a massive overstatement.  Many mods only tweak game-play or use existing assets in new configurations.  I'm pretty sure most of the most popular mods fall into those categories--body replacers aside, of course.

There is some grey area here that I'm not sure of, though, such as how much you can alter an existing asset.

I don't know much about modding at all, but I always thought the whole point was to put stuff in the game and makes changes that would never have been in the main game such as game changes or hilarious stuff or basically whatever anyone wanted. 

I can see people still making some cool mods on the PS4 versions but I would think they would be really limited if they can only use stuff that was already in the main game. Basically any mod that uses external assets can't be used on PS4 now. 

Well I dunno. Like I said in my other reply in this thread, I really don't know much about modding but I know the point is to change and tweak the game to how people wanted to play it or to put what they wanted in it, just that a lot of the mods out there do use a lot of external assets as well though. 

I still don't see why Sony won't allow just full regular mod support if Microsoft is doing it though.