Yes, I think that initially (long time ago now) they said something like that. It should be about exploration of space, not just planets.
And Howard said it should be huge, right? Whole galaxy or something? Im not sure.
They probably delayed the game because of Star Citizen - to release comparable game in terms of graphics or gameplay etc. They didnt want the idea that Starfield will look clearly inferior.
I doubt Bethesda is worried about Star Citizen since that's not even the same genre, (Sim vs RPG). I'm still not convinced that Star Citizen will ever actually get released.
As far as the size, I hope they don't go overboard. The larger the game world the more they're going to rely on procedurally generated content.