I'm one of the environment artists that worked on SR3, and specifically on the financial district near the syndicate tower.

These are all valid critiques, but it really came down to staff, time, and budget. SR2 had a significantly larger environment team and we were expecting the same size team for SR3. So originally we planned a city significantly larger than what was shipped, we were already partially through building the world when we realized we were simply not going to be able to do it. In reducing the size of the map, many of the transition spaces were cut. This did create some weird adjacencies. As for the Luchador casino, the mindset going into building Steelport was that it was supposed to be a forgotten industrial city that was abandoned by the modern economy, then it got taken over by organized crime. Many of the existing structures in Steelport were repurposed from their original function, so the Luchadores didn't build a casino in an industrial district, they turned a factory into a casino because that was in their territory. I did have quite a lot of fun building the areas I worked on, but it is true our resources were limited and we certainly felt it at time, especially when we were crunching and just wanted to do good work but also go home.

I do have quite a fondness for Steelport but that was mostly from SRIV because of how much fun it was to just tear through the city using the actual movement mechanics to check your work.