That's pretty much what I tried to say. The world disagrees with me because it's mainstream. Is it good? from my point of view it isn't, but is Justin Bieber good? no, he's a punk but oh so many people would disagree with you.
Like I said before, the great scheme behind it is the pretentious plot that is not good, but people can't see beyond their fascination for the game. The plot, like most games out there, is bleh at best and simple. And no, you can't expect to think that the game has a righteous agenda trying to teach people of the "real world". It's like saying that Family Guy is meant to educate people on their own flaws.
And true, it is teaching the younger generations of guns, gangs, drugs and random shootings. It is exactly doing what you say and it only makes people throw it into normalcy. You underestimate the stupidity of people and the influence games have, thinking that they can be bad in game and good in person. Well, that's a lie. It doesn't work that way. It only seeds violent thoughts in little kids that can't process them like an adult would.
Like Call of Duty online. Over and over again you get little kids yelling and screaming that they'll kill you and your family because you won. They can't handle this level of violence and aggression because they're stupid, tiny, little brats with under developed brains.
Bottom line is, the game is about killing hookers and stealing cars.
But it's a game. Period. Some people like it, some people don't. I see it from a different light because I've been around the block a few times and have studied around games. I don't think it's great, I think it's just all right for people who like that sort of thing, but that's because I think games beyond the brand name because of my studies.
Just enjoy the game. I see your point of view and all I'm just telling you what I think from my perspective and that in my opinion there's no way to support it as being good, but it's a game so in the end we're wasting time talking about something irrelevant and I wasted a life studying for something irrelevant. =p