That’s the YouTube comparison bro bro. There’s no shame in it but they were playing MJ in the 90s. SR3 is still playing with 5 mill units sold, and it was known and highly rated. Inertia is a bytch
Context matters, SR1 came out in that hardware gap between SA and GTA4 and for most people it was GTA4 before GTA4
When GTA4 actually dropped people criticized it originally for lack of sandbox features and people didn't like the driving. A lot of people felt SR2 was the better game.
They could have gotten good traction if they dropped a GTA style SR3 in the gap between 4 and 5