I'd like to agree but I can't, there's just too much in SR2 that annoys the experience, doing the activity's for respect to do real missions ingame are superb. The controls on foot aren't exactly bad either. But the driving ruins it, the graphics ruin it, the sound quality, the popup, the performance, etc...
Gta doesn't have to be serious, you can still grab a car and go on a rampage killing half the population, but GTA IV looks, sounds and runs good while doing it.
But well you know what I think, I judge such games mainly with how fun it is to take a drive in the world, hence I still think SA (simply a much nicer world)>IV (awesome driving and physics)> SR2...
Perhaps I will change my mind if I play SR2 a bit more, atm I'm only on 6%/3 ''story'' missions.