I don't necessarily care about the graphics either but it should look a bit better, especially that the animations and AI are rather wonky as well.
Colour palette alone can make a game look much worse and Mafia 3 somehow reminds me of Driver: Parallel Lines in this regard;p
The quality of animations is usually the first thing I notice in a game and, to me, something that just makes games feel polished. Of course this isn't my only criterion but was one of the main reasons I enjoyed RDR, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Max Payne 3, GTA V, Tomb Raider, MGS V and couldn't entirely get into e.g. Witcher 3 and all of its clunky goodness (got used to it in the end).
Hope the story lives up to M1/M2.