It does kinda speak to on our own social issues, and reflects it back in a way. Not sure how much of it is passion or just an outlet for other personal misery. The game seemed like it was designed to be a shit magnet though. Pretty unfortunate since it is made exceptionally well from a technical/artistic standpoint. The design choices involving story beats, structure, characters and pacing are what mainly bog it down. I don’t mind the dark brooding tone, but it could’ve used some more levity besides smalltalk banter about angry wives and such. For all the excellence in character performances they don’t have much personality on display, which would’ve also been nice. I’m spoiled by the camp life of RDR2 I guess.
Having said that, in terms of story I always try to go in with a grain of salt, and realize that it’s art like anything creative. It’s technically not there to please me or even agree with how I think it woulda/coulda/shoulda been, so to help preserve my sanity whether it’s books, movies, TV, games, etc. I try to make sense of it from the writer’s perspective and ultimately accept it for what it is, good or bad. For instance I don’t feel the characters can be specifically faulted for behaving as they do, because they are written to be flawed. At most I can lay criticism down for how their individual threads are tied together.