Maybe the real lesson here is Bethesda had no idea how to write a satisfactory and compelling war story.
The only problem with The Civil War is it's debate, specifically, the sheer rationalization from one side of the equation, the blue side.
Frankly, the only strong argument I have ever heard to support The Stormcloaks is Dagmar's "Who You Care About" (as I like to call it):
As it stands, there's a good chance that the Aldmeri Dominion will continue it's campaign to conquer Tamriel once again, as we all know, there's two provinces that stand in their way, Hammerfell and Cyrodiil.
None of those is Skyrim.
As such, "the land of the nords" is by no means in any way of direct danger from a Dominion invasion, only The Empire is, and if you harbor negative feelings about The Legions or anything related to Cyrodiil, then you shouldn't concern yourself in this matter; if you don't care about a unified Tamriel, then by all means, join The Stormcloaks, kick The Empire out and enjoy your snowy lands and praying to your Talos shrine, the Dominion won't leave a war with The Empire completely unscathed, they will suffer losses, and it will allow for the nords to prepare if times of hostility approach.
The problem here of course, it's that this is not enough for the people who support The Stormcloaks, "nationalism" and "traditionalism" don't make the cut, they need their cause to be undoubtedly justified at a moral level, in a post-Star Wars era videogame, it is necessary for the rebels to be the good guys at their core, even when the story makes it clear that you will not find such a thing within the questline.
And thus, we have to engage in endless debates, constantly discussing in circles over and over, going round and round with each topic; this is precisely why we have stuff like "Tullius is a ruthless, uncaring basterd!", "The White-Gold Concordat is a disgraceful surrender from a weak Empire!", "There are no women in The Empire, sexism!" or my favorite "Ulfric was an innocent white dove who merely followed the orders of the evil bastard that is Igmund!".
Cartoonified examples I'll admit, but after a while, they become noise.