I think it's likely the right call to lock it to 30 on Xbox though maybe a 40fps mode would have been possible like Ratchet and Clank had on PS5, it's a bigger difference in responsiveness than you'd think. (33% faster!)
I also think not including SSR was probably smart, it can look really good at certain angles or stills but the effect is never quite coherent when you are actually playing the game due to occlusion and disocclusion. The dynamic cube maps will give a more grounded and sensible look to larger reflective surfaces even if you are technically sacrificing higher quality reflections.
None of the moves they made are a huge surprise to me, Bethesda as a rule generally tries to prioritize immersive and self consistent visuals over absolute fidelity. You can get used to 30fps, it's hard to feel immersed when the frame rate is bouncing up and down.