A solid and enlightening review, thanks.
The improved graphics are, at the moment, this game's greatest asset.
I would hate to think what the opinion of someone who has no previous experience of the SH series would be, as Neal said- the bugs and vagueness would leave a very poor first impression. I don't think most gamers readily turn to modifications as their first port of call- they rightly assume patch releases will sort out the problems.
At this moment I reckon SH5
will become the game we were all hoping for- it'll just take some time...