If Rockstar had given the game over to Ubisoft to make and the gameplay and characters more closely resembled a Ubisoft game, then yes, I would think it's not "really" gta (obviously the name would still be GTA). as it was, GTA developed organically from the same developer. Was there ever a lot of talk how GTA 3 was actually another game instead? I don't remember, I just remember thinking it was GTA 3d, which i loved.
I would say, if someone were to see the gameplay/characters without seeing the title of the game, what game would they most closely connect with it? I've played POE I and II, Pathfinder and DOS2 (among other unknown modern crpgs) and Baldur's Gate 3 currently resembles DOS2 the most to me. The game IS Baldur's Gate 3, there's no denying that however.
