After that most recent Saint's Row game, I can't say I'm surprised.
It felt like it was designed by Tumblr, sold on an unpopular platform (Epic), left out most of what was good from the previous entries, was attrociously buggy, and had deeply disappointing DLC.
Nobody wanted it and it felt designed by committee.
Like Blizzard, most of the talent that made them great to begin with wasn't there any more.
You're correct that it has been overblown in the past. That does not invalidate what is occurring, doubly so since we have scientific proof now.
You are equating "Old man yells at cloud" to "hundreds of nuclear scientists says cloud of radioactive gas is harmful and here are dozens of papers proving it."