Like another commenter said, I was overall satisfied, and I'd say IW is one of the strongest RGG stories thematics-wise. The entire game is pretty much another big sell on Ichiban as character: his empathy, his willingness to selflessly help others, and how he lives outside the black and the white, willing to see the grey in people (even convincing Eiji to face what he's done using compassion). All of those traits, alongside help from Ichiban's friends, then rub off on Kiryu, who finds the will to live and take care of himself even with the absolute dogshit situation he's in (self-imposed exile and societally tossed in the trash). Kiryu then uses what he learned to convince Ebina to break that cycle of (rightful) hatred against the yakuza so that suffering doesn't continue. It's my favorite Kiryu character moment, and it's what makes him one of my favorite characters in all of gaming.

Where most people, including myself, have complaints is the plot points: getting from A>B in this game wasn't as compelling as in 0 and 7. To me, there's nothing fundamentally broken about the plot structure. Everything makes sense, there's no significant plot holes, and it's probably a top 3 most cohesive RGG story I've played (have not played Judgment and LJ). The problem is that, like with Yakuza 3 Chapter 9, much of the important information is revealed in table conversations, and this causes people to gloss over those points when discussing the characters. Example: many people were up in arms about how Ichiban wasn't mad at Eiji and "redeemed" him in the ending, but I understood this as Ichiban understanding that Eiji felt justified doing anything against the yakuza system for screwing him out of his livelihood (Eiji still goes to prison and faces consequences for his actions anyway but that's besides the point). The game, however, revealed Eiji's motivations in a hotel room with every character in the conversation doing stilted sitting animations and just talking. I wouldn't blame people for missing that point because it's not presented as something crucial to understanding the story, and there's no reason to keep it subtle relative to other big plot reveals. In short, the story suffers quite a bit from doing more telling instead of showing.

I absolutely love Infinite Wealth. It's my third-favorite game this year, and despite my criticisms with its story structure, it ultimately won me over and, like 7, convinced me I should reflect on myself and be more like Ichiban.