I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 again recently and have been thoroughly enjoying it, but this one thing has always bugged be about this game and Rockstar games in general, and that's how restrictive they are with their mission design. You decide to get off your horse too early when riding to an objective, mission failure. You stand outside a building too long while your friends go inside, mission failure. The list goes on, but you get the point. If you go even slightly outside the railings of the amusement park ride Rockstar has setup, instant mission failure.
This whole issue is made even worse by how in contrast the missions are with the open world. The open world is a sandbox where you can handle situations how ever you want. It feels like a living, breathing world where NPCs will react to your actions. It almost feels like there were two entirely separate teams working on the open world and missions, who aren't coordinating. Given how big Rockstar is that could absolutely be the case.
I've also been playing Kingdom Come Deliverance II and that game is in a lot of ways quite similar to RDR2 with it's set protagonist, realism, and open world sandbox. The flexibility of how you can handle quests in that game really highlights the shortcomings of RDR2. I know KCDII is an RPG and focuses more on player dialogue choices, but the existence of the honor system demonstrates how Rockstar is willing to let player actions dictate the story and world, so they could at least let some of that bleed into the missions. Maybe sprinkle a few high and low honor choices into missions, and don't fail the mission if you do something slightly wrong. Have the world react to the player not doing what you want. Have your friends call after you if you're lagging behind or something. I'm pretty sure that already happens in the game at some point.
Thank you for listening to my rant. This is just something I've been meaning to put into words for awhile.