also the other component is that the gta serise, and gta 3 in particular, were the first games that really successfully created an image of 'coolness' that had broad cultural appeal beyond the typical video game demographic of the 90s i.e. kids and sweaty pc geeks. the houser brothers had a background in music distribution and it shows. they had their finger on the pulse of what people thought was cool in the late 90s and early 2000s. the success of the 3d era gta games is really derived from their ability to steal ideas from films and pick out great soundtracks, and package it all together in a product that feels faithful to the ideas it was borrowing from and not like a lazy copy of popular tropes. so it's totally fair to say that part of the appeal of these games was their cultural relevance rather than their gameplay, which is why a lot of people justifiably don't see the appeal in them.
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