I feel we would've have this thread or discussion if the "montage" was actually gameplay of about at least a few solid hours. No, they don't even have to be "consecutive" in ingame or "told time". Throughout the game you see at least small-scale cuts skipping a few hours, half a day, a day. Probably not much more.
This could've worked well even in a "full Act 1" where you do get to meet the characters shown in the montage and have some gameplay, and in-between there are smaller time skips. It would feel more wholesome and could be its own fifth, quarter or third of the game while perhaps weaving in more unique aspects of your lifepath.
It's moot to theorize about this all now of course, but as devs read the forums it could give tips for the next follow-up game or a potential DLC for this one down the line.
A montage like this one should be avoided for the next game unless it just fits into the scene or context. Here, it kind of does work to show you a time skip and what roughly went down. To be fair, it works in the way it does, it roughly tells you what went down.
At the same time, it seems people feel cheated or think this is basically what could've been gameplay as well. And in the context of the rest of the game, it feels a bit "inorganic". Especially as Corpo you don't even get "closure" to what went down. For a serious betrayal right before the montage you get interrogated and then "thrown out" on a hunch but I would imagine that someone working in this business wouldn't just be thrown out without hassle, given the information and people you know. This could've been shown or hinted at, with some harassment or buying yourself out of it or somehow applying pressure yourself so they leave you alone.
Similar coverage could've been added to the Streetkid lifepath (get back on the guy sending you into a failed theft) or the Nomad (selling the animal that likely ends up in Yorinobus apartment, etc).
I realize they had a closing time window as they re-did the game several times to my knowledge and had to get it out eventually, meaning you cannot add it all in a closing time window - otherwise they would've done it.
But it's vital to "take notes" now in order to tackle the issues that people nitpick or complain about this time to avoid them for the next great game.
And ideally, there is no time and resources wasted on re-doing the game X with major revisions and scrapping things. Ideally the path is set out from the start and clear throughout the journey so you can focus all the time just onto that and have something truly remarkable and with more player choices and options. Maybe even joinable factions - my dream, of sorts.
