The thing is, I'm seeing praise for the show and I don't understand it...

Where are you hearing praise? If it's mainstream conservatives or something, I've noticed a - in my opinion - very frustrating trend, where they feel the need to latch onto popular culture to show they're not "outsiders," or something. A bunch of prominent mainstream conservatives were singing the praises of The Last of Us at the time, too. I suppose because it wasn't as woke as it could have been, or something. "Look at us, we're conservatives, but we can consoom Current Thing too! We're hip, we're with it!"

Not sure if that's what's happening with Fallout, or that's what you're talking about, but I have seen at least a bit of that. Fallout is (apparently, as I haven't watched it) not as woke as it could be. So some people are taking that as a win. Which is in my opinion stupid, as they often wait a bit to inject the woke anyway. I can almost guarantee that if there's a season 2, it will be at the very, very least marginally more woke than the first season.

...so I'm wondering if those giving praise are used to wading through outhouse troughs and view this as a breath of fresh air? Are my expectations too high? Is this a me problem?

To the first point, that's probably a big part of it. Lots of stuff out there is worse, so if Current Thing isn't as bad as Current Thing -1, some people cheer. To the second point...no, this is not a you problem. Shit sucks.