I haven't played it but yeah, it seems like they should've went more in the Deus Ex direction but more open (and with character creation) instead of the GTA stuff.
What's the design purpose of driving around anyway? GTA is 50-50 on being a driving game, always has been, but this?
And on top of the city simulation, which basically only R* can manage to do at that level of fidelity in the first place, they also had to build the whole RPG and story aspects?
It's an absurd proposition, especially for a team that, before W3, was still regarded as the AA-jank-with-a-heart underdog.
R* has been perfecting AAAA with more or less the same structure for 20 years.