I don't think they would have had the reception they did if they didn't release it for older gen hardware.

You're probably right. I'm sure that factored in. Who knows how much dev time went to old console hardware that was never going to run the game well.

I had a similar experience playing on PC with what was a nearly brand new PC build. I ran into a few bugs but nothing broke the game. It was a lot of fun.

I think many people took issue with the launch features CDPR promised that weren't delivered until much later. I haven't kept track but maybe some weren't delivered at all.