Yeah it would need a complete engine overhaul. The time, energy, effort and collaboration required to overhaul Starfield to make it a good game could just be put into making an actual good game.

At least to Cyberpunk's credit, the engine was good and there was a nice base from which something decent could be built, CDPR just didn't do it. Starfield? Even if all the woke nonsense was removed, there's just a ton of other limitations on the backend to contend with that just doesn't make it worth the time or the effort.