Everybody who's been playing since VC or before probably feels limited. New people will likely not mind as they don't know the experience of "old" GTAs.
I think this is my hipster moment to shine, but yeah, I've owned every single GTA game (some more than once) since GTA 1, I absolutely love the series, I play GTA 2 to this day, and I play also GTA Online. I loved the story from SP in GTA V, the game is incredible, amazing graphics, good gameplay, innovative system. I like it a lot, but I don't love it.
I played a lot of GTA 2 when I was a kid. I love that game. FLAMETHROWERS. I remember watching the graphics at "night time" and my jaw dropping to the floor. I still even remember the game menu song (seriously, it's amazing). When GTA 3 came along I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing, the amount of possibilities in a 3D GTA... And we still had all the cool things from GTA 2, even more! Damn that game was beautiful.
Vice City made me understand that Rockstar was truly a company that likes to better themselves with every game. The level of ambientation that game possess is something I have yet to see again. It's on a whole new level of incredible, the way that time was portrayed was spot on with a level of atomic accuracy. Just wow. Again, better than before.
I remember buying San Andreas. I remember even more going to school the other thay and telling all my mates the incredible unbeliveble thing I had back in house. I mean, I do really like GTAs... and this shit came and said to me "you haven't played anything yet". Now, I know here are a lot of people who loves VC more than SA, and I believe that has an explanation that lays in the terms of, again, ambientation. Ambience. SA has great ambience, very detailed and well executed, but it's just too farm from VC's one. There's the rift, there's the difference. SA has planes, but VC has Michael Jackson. Incredible GTA, super well done, very very complete. Again Rockstar selling me their company.
IV was the second revolution (since going 3D). They went ragdoll. They went physics. It's an important turn, some people didn't liked it, I loved it. When I saw the ragdoll animations in Youtube trailers, in very alpha state, I couldn't believe it.
I think IV is a great GTA, just not THAT great. It lacks a bit something, doesn't have much variety, it feels a bit plain. But that's understandable, in those times making a game that looked that well and at the same time having lots of things inside a sandbox was a lot more difficult to achieve. It had and has a horrible PC port, and that's something that I'll never forgive Rockstar for. A lot of players love playing GTA on PC, we deserved something better. But well, alas, it's playable with mild rigs.
Now this one... Is a bit more complete. I definitely like it more than IV, better graphics, much better optimized, much more complete, official GTA Online, better UI, somewhat better story, good voice acting (also IV has this), but yeah, it lacks that GTA thing. Fighting the cops isn't just THAT fun anymore, and I can't quite put my finger why. Well, the lack of taxi missions (GTAO), cop missions, firefighter missions, health missions surely sucks. I mean, when I went to Online to find out I couldnt be a taxi driver and make money, wtf... That seriously sucked. But it has its bits, GTA Online is very, very fun to play, it has goods Heists, and it's good to (as I read here on Reddit) have a game that was designed around one of the best missions in GTA franchise. I think it's way better than IV, and that makes it the best GTA of current GTA-gens, which is very different from San Andreas and very different from GTA 2.
I believe next DLCs are going to blow our minds though. They're going to include a lot of things that are lacking now, because hey, they like money. It sucks but I'm willing to pay a few more bucks to get more Heists and things. I'm not going to fall into the classical speech of "HEY YOU WERE SUCK A GREAT COMPANY AND NOW YOURE GREEDY MONSTERS", they grew, they need and want more money to keep growing. Also, they're a company, not our friends, and companies revolve around money. That's why I believe next DLCs are going to be awesome, they will listen at the community and do as the community says, along with puting a price tag on it. It's us telling them what we want more (which they probably already know) so we can buy it from them. They'll love it.