Right. And if temperature is the only critera for you, everything that is frozen can be called icrecream. But I am not sure if everyone will share that evaluation ...
Well, you create/play a kind of character in almost every game. Be it from strategy games where you are most of the time just called the Commander or General or in games like GTA where you have to assume the role of a criminal. If you really see the playing of a character or character creation as only token than Doom, Quake, the Sims and Half-Life are RPGs too. Mechanics matter my friend. That is the harsh truth that many Beth fans simply don't want to accept - not that I am calling you a Beth fan I am just saying this in general, not that I only blame them for it. The term RPG has been wattered down so much over the years that it has become meaningless. That's why we talk today about the Action RPGs which could theoretically be all games you play today and the PnP RPGs or CRPGs. Games like Torment or Fallout 1 which have been normal RPGs in the past when it was still a niche in gaming are considered hardcore today and many publishers avoid it like the plaque if it can't be sold as action RPG as they see their playbase as to dumb to figure something out and enjoy content that is god forbid deeper and more complex than Call of Duty or Halo so they concentrate on the lowest possible denominator. Not that I have a problem with CoD or Halo, I enjoy such games. I just don't an RPG on the level of CoD.
With skills in a game like Fallout 1 you are not supposed to actually play a role but to create a character and play the game with the skills you chose and guiding him trough the world making decisions based on the qualities of said character. Playing a dimplomath is different to a warrior. Playing a paladin is different to a druid, priest, mage or monk. And this is usually reflected by the choice in the skills - and some games can even go as far as to remove your class when you actually don't behave like as it is expected from the class, becoming something like a fallen Paladin for example. The reason for this is, because you're supposed to play the achetypes in contrast to a game where you might have to assume one single character, like Gerald in the Witcher. I am not saying that a game where you play a single character like Gerald of Rivia or Adam Jenson can't work as RPG. But they do not offer you any chance to really stray away from that role, hence why it is totally fine for a game like Witcher 3 to not let the player kill civilians/inocent people because that would be simply totally out of Geralds role, an RPG like Fallout 1 though would work on a different design idea allowing you to play a child killing psychopath. But of course to those that that don't like RPGs this might be eventually over their head. For them it's all just the same, playing the Masterchief in Halo or the Marine in Doom is also "Roleplaying" ... so who cares if F3/F4 is moving rather in that direction than Fallout 1/2. For them beeing shuned by some questgivers for playing a psychopath is an error and where they question why they can't be both. Killer of Megaton and saviour of the wasteland.
RPGs like Fallout 1 gave you a wide field to explore with characters and character creation. That is where mechanics matter a lot.
I say that Fallout 4 if it follows the footsteps of Fallout 3 is not a real RPG for me, call it an adventure game, a hiking simulator a gore simulator or whack-a-raider or what ever. But from what I have seen I am not convinced that it's an RPG, it just borrows some characterstics from RPGs. But that's it. And many games do this even. Like Warcraft 3 where you have some heroes. Or Blizzard heroes of the storm with skills and level ups. But no one would get really the idea to call those strategy games RPGs. So I am not sure why I should call F3/F4 anything else than shooters. But that's my opinion.
Adventure games being a strong front runner in that department.
Except that even you're calling them ADVENTURE games and not ROLE PLAYING games. I could call a motorcycle a car because in my opinion both have wheels, but that still does not make it true.
And that is what Bethesda is doing here in my opinion. They take a car (Fallout 1) and remove 2 of the wheels and selling it as motorcycle (Fallout 3, Fallout 4).
That's quite an extreme way to put it.... In that case, I guess I'm anti Fallout extremist of the highest order. Haha. No really, Beth make nice action games and funparks... But they totally suck at making decent RPGs. And in my opinion they have royally butchered Fallout series and there's no end to the BS apparently. 
How do you roleplay incompetence if there's no consequences to the character's incompetence?