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Bain Would be Disappointed

Boy oh boy, where do I even begin? Well, let's start with the positives, which are mostly surface-level:
1. Massive graphical improvement over PD2, and it runs pretty smoothly on the same hardware even on Ultra settings.
2. Sound design's great, and the soundtrack's good.
3. The Grenadier special enemy is a fun way to integrate the gas that featured in some of PD2's heists as a proactive enemy instead of an environmental effect.
4. The lockpicking minigame is a simple timed button press, but oddly satisfying.
The Negatives
1. The progression system is HILARIOUSLY bad. Unlike in PD2, where you would get XP based on the specific Heist and the difficulty you chose to play on, completing a Heist in PD3 awards 0 (zero) XP of any kind whatsoever, even if you're playing on difficulties higher than Normal, such as Hard. Nope, the only way to progress is to grind out specific little Challenges, such as getting X kills with Y weapon, Kill X of Y enemy, etc etc. This means that this game, which is fundamentally supposed to be a co-op game, forces you to be aggressive in farming kills as much as you possibly can, which of course actively hinders your teammates from progressing. After all, if you're getting kills, your teammates aren't getting those same kills and vice versa. This applies to both Character and Weapon Progression (more on that in a bit), creating an environment where one player's success can only come at the expense of their teammates. I genuinely cannot comprehend the logic behind this design decision.
2. Weapon mods now aren't random loot - Great! ...making a weapon even remotely usable now takes hours of grinding out Challenges with that specific weapon to level it up, as each individual weapon has a level track. This means you can't save up weapon mods you've found along the way, move them between weapons as you could in PD2, nope, none of that. Each weapon's progression is hard-locked to that one weapon, and they only get XP under certain specific criteria. You can complete a major Heist on a higher difficulty, killing enemies with the weapon as you go, but unless you killed those enemies in the exact way the game wanted you to, none of them count. Repeating what I said in my previous point because I cannot stress it enough, this means you can complete a mission and all of its bonus objectives and gain 0 XP for your trouble, making it all a complete waste of time unless you're already at level cap, whatever that happens to be.
3. Experience no longer being tied to how well you execute the Heist means that unless you're specifically short on cash, there's absolutely no incentive to go after bonus bags, loot, etc. In a Payday game, it's actively less efficient, in terms of progressing your character, to be a better heister. What? Why?
4. You can no longer sell weapons you buy. You still have a limited number of weapon slots that you have to pay to unlock, but if you've bought a weapon, you cannot sell it to get some money back like you could in PD2. Your only option is, and I'm not making this up, "Destroy". They couldn't even be bothered to give you a 1%-of-purchase-price refund for selling a weapon nope, that weapon, and all the cash invested in it, is destroyed outright. A quick test seems to show that a Destroyed weapon does keep its XP if you should choose to buy it back later, a bonus that wouldn't be necessary if the progression system wasn't a complete farce.
5. The skills are the store-brand Bran Flakes equivalent to PD2's artisanal, chef-made three-course dinner with a fantastic view and a great band. In PD2 you had access to a bewildering array of hilarious, effective, dumb, and ridiculous skills, and of course, the ability to combine those very freely for dumbly efficient or ridiculously dumb builds, with a Perk Deck on top. Skills here are much more similar to the Perk Decks, except largely more bland. I can enjoy 10% bonus damage as a passive buff for a limited time? Riveting. Looking at all the skills, not a single one stood out to me as an "Oh, that seems fun/interesting/hilarious" etc., unlike PD2 where skills transform the game.
6. The game requires an always online connection. Want to host a private game? You have to go into Matchmaking, set to invite only, and then wait for the game to queue you into a lobby, even when you're just playing by yourself! Yes, you must sit there and wait for a queue to play solo. Meanwhile, in PD2, you just pick “Play Offline”. You can even customise your AI loadouts, which I couldn't find here in PD3, though it's possible that I just missed it. The always online requirement means that it's impossible to play if the servers are offline, or your internet connection is down.
7. The weapon-buying UI is an actual trap. Let's say you go into your Secondary weapons and buy a weapon from the list of what you would then assume to be valid weapons for your Secondary slot. Well, turns out, it lists Primary slot weapons there too! So yes, you can go into the Secondary weapon slot, buy a weapon, only to then find out it's not actually a Secondary weapon, but a Primary. There is absolutely no indication of this in the weapon buying process, and there's no way to actually filter for the weapons lot you're shopping for, so unless you already know ahead of time, you have to cross your fingers and hope. This is especially fun given that there's no possibility of selling weapons you've bought.
8. There's this new feature which is basically a kill streak bonus. You get enough kills to fill up a bar, you press a button, and the magical Multiple Grenade Launcher Santa Claus drops a 6-shot semi-automatic grenade launcher for you, along with some spare ammo for it, at no cost. This isn't Payday, this is Call of Heist: Modern Robbing.
9. The hostage system in PD2 was already silly, but this is ridiculous. You can just trade in hostages and it magically spawns health packs, instantly. You can even upgrade this function with one of the skill lines.
10. Weapon stats, which in PD2 were displayed with numbers after the community requested them, are now back to worthless bars that mean nothing and convey almost zero useful information.
In Summary
The progression system is one of the worst I have ever seen, where players, in this co-op game, have to compete against each other. The Challenge system's structure means that you have to rotate between weapons and playstyles to progress your level to unlock skill points, even if you've already found a loadout and playstyle you enjoy.
There is no incentive to complete bonus objectives unless you specifically need the cash.
Always online means you cannot play offline, and you have to waste time matchmaking with yourself when you want to play solo.
Micro-transactions and season passes are already confirmed for this paid game. Sure it's not the standard AAA retail price, but it's still a 40€ game.
There are no skill trees with choices to make, just linear skill tracks. They function similarly to PD2’s Perk Decks, except these are way less interesting and have completely replaced the core skill tree system PD2 had.
Weapon mods being locked by progressing a specific weapon's XP means you have to restart from scratch with every single weapon, whereas in PD2, you could accrue mods and move most of them between weapons.

Conclusion:

Except for visuals and arguably sound, PD3 is a worse game than PD2 in every conceivable way, being always online to add insult to injury. Few heists, terrible progression, nothing to encourage you to learn a heist's bonus objectives, etc etc. What we've got is a far shallower, restrictive and dull experience without a single redeeming feature outside of visuals.

As long as Payday 2 exists, Payday 3 has no reason to. It's a shell of a game riddled with design decisions so self-sabotaging that it defies comprehension.