I didn't find the Witcher 3 to be so black and white as you claim. I did enjoy the first and second games stories more than the main quest for the Witcher 3. Some of the side quests had good looking people that were bad. The main quests evil character wasn't bad. Something you have to think about with a character like Junior is that he is likely abusing himself inadvertently and that has an effect on his appearance over a long period of time. If you look at a lot of older abusers in real life they often look sick, unhealthy, and tired due to abusing themselves with substance abuse, alchohol, and perhaps even physical torture. Their victims often only get abused once in a while compared to the constant abuse they do to themselves. Even the main rider of the wild hunt's philosophy on life would take it's tole. He seems to enjoy pain even if it's him on the receiving end. Geralt is a gray character and he always looks tries to find out the real story no matter weather it's a monster or a human.
The only thing I really think could be said was taken from the game is the sex. One might argue that sex is immature in theme the way it was in the first two games. I personally prefer it that way. It's more fun when the relationships aren't so serious like it is with Yennifer, Triss, and even Shani in the Witcther 3. For me I play games to escape serious relationships which are what you have in reality. That was the most annoying thing about the third games main quest for me. It was to centered on family responsibilities and relationships. The only somewhat serious part of the game I would like is the stories Geralt is trying to unfold as a detective. Generally the Witcher 3 had many of these in the side quests, and parts of them in the main quest.
Aside from that I thought the helper features added in detracted from the game a bit. I know you can turn them off so I guess it's not a big deal.