I don't disagree with you, a lot of the missions felt like more of the same. And the focus on online has been disappointing, but that just means I haven't played GTA in a few years. I also rarely play any games, so I'm not a very picky gamer, I just like the game mechanics in GTA and being able to roam a big world with interesting details and humor. Sometimes I played it for a few hours without even starting a mission.

I get what you're saying about character development, but at the same time some of my favorite games are Mario 64 and Mirror's Edge. Sometimes I just want to play a shallow game, not take part in a deep story. Most of the story in GTA happens as dialogue in the car when driving to the mission, and I'm usually too distracted to follow along anyway.