Yeah they're just not going to get it. There will be something missing, the overall audience will know something is missing but won't be able to articulate it.

What will ultimately happen is that through successive games people in a boardroom will zero in on "what makes GTA good?" and "What is GTA's identity?" and then exaggerate that to a degree that becomes flanderised. They will misunderstand the injection of reality that exists in it, the genuine attempt at a cultural product and the real attempt at a material basis to its contents. Most importantly they probably won't be political enough, it's an incredibly political game series that has always delivered something different even if it's fucked up in places with its stereotypes that aged poorly.

I think we'll see this in the new game immediately. But it won't be until the game afterwards that it really kicks in.