Scale is definitely what I'm looking forward to. Current graphic fidelity has hit the ceiling in terms of lighting. High resolution ray trace only lighting is still out of reach but they did redo global illumination so it scales better.
For some reason, that beach scene really impressed me. There were tons of static models, lots of NPCs all doing different stuff, and the updated hair animations seemed to still be working (hard to tell though). It just looked really good, especially compared to similar scenes in GTA V that were pretty much empty.
I mean every other game in the series seemed to have been going for realism idk why this one would be different. It may have many technical improvements but imo that doesn't excuse things like skin that looks smooth as butter on almost every NPC lol
Not that I'm not excited, just a bit disappointed.