There's a suprising density of unique locations and interactions beyond the main quests. Try walking around in the city and you'll see.

I like the driving now that I understand it is more simulation than arcade. You can't just hammer the gas all the way down because you will have no traction, unlike GTA. You have to either slow down to turn, or you have to learn to slide turns. The steering is a little hard to get used to, but tweaking the settings makes it much better.

If you think the driving sucks now, you shoulda seen how it was at launch. Half the cars would just slide around like you were on ice whenever you tried to stop. They're at least servicable now. Which is good, since they also removed the exploit that allowed you to stack momentum while on foot by dashing while slowing down time. Still nowhere near as good as driving in GTA but better than driving in an Ubisoft open world game.