Usually, when companies bring hands-on builds to E3 it is playable by anyone attending the show. Also, the "journalists" at E3 are anything but carefully selected - I heard people got in because they worked behind the counter at Wall Mart. Maybe it's a bit stricter now that the show is smaller, but the invites list to the event is not determined by Bethesda. Still, nothing playable will have find it's way into the hands of "us", the gamers/fans/non-journalists. That was made pretty clear by the announcement that there will be no demo of the game.
As for the heavily scripted part, I fully expect you are right about that. If the game is indeed on the show floor at E3, the attendees will probably get to play something along the lines of what was shown last year.
Of course, I don't expect the previews to change at all as a result of the journalists going hands-on with the game. It's already determined by the general gaming press that this game is fantastic, so no-one will dare to give it anything but good publicity.
As for the heavily scripted part, I fully expect you are right about that. If the game is indeed on the show floor at E3, the attendees will probably get to play something along the lines of what was shown last year.
Of course, I don't expect the previews to change at all as a result of the journalists going hands-on with the game. It's already determined by the general gaming press that this game is fantastic, so no-one will dare to give it anything but good publicity.