I think this review summarizes things perfectly.
The only bit I'd mention is that it's not an issue of having a "Helicopter Wizard", just because The Syndicate freezes your assets doesn't mean your literally reduced to pauperdom, you still have all the resources that you did from Saint's Row 2, it's just that you control one city and your in a differant one. They do show Pierce (who wasn't on the original plane) showing up with the Saint's reinforcements which makes a degree of sense, your not literally taking the city over from the lowest rungs of society this time....
The vibe is also intended to be somewhat less desperate as a result, I think part of the point isn't just that the Saint's sold out, but that at their core they really hadn't. The syndicate thought they would be victims, but really this is kind of a walk in the park for these guys since it's just rehashing what they have already done twice in their home city of Steelport already. The atmosphere being kind of one of them showing these crazy things going and the general "yup, I've got this" which does show a degree of evolution in the characters and the situation.
Speaking for myself I had thought that the logical (well sort of) thing to do with the series would have been to tie things in with their other franchise... "Red Faction". Ultor is present in both games, and well.. we know about the relationship between The Saints and Ultor.
If they were going to get crazy with it, they could do a silly/serious vibe out of things with the Saints (or rather their Ultor descendants) say trying to control all of the drugs, prostitution, and smuggling of minerals coming out of Mars as well. Sort of like "Grand Theft Total Recall" or whatever. It would take some good writing, but a science fiction take on the whole crime-game could be.. interesting. I personally wondered if "Gangstas In Space" might have been implying something similar.
The problem is that with Saint's Row you've already got these guys controlling their own city state (now two of them) like a modern Al Capone... where do you go from there, at least within the same era?
I've mentioned similar things before (back when I finished SR2 in fact).