People keep saying CDPR's mistake was trying to force the game to run on last gen consoles. Nah, I think it's the other way around - they forced the game to be next gen, and that's what caused this mess.
They announced this game before last gen consoles were even released and said it was intended to be released on those consoles. I'm guessing as the years passed, and new tech came out, they wanted Cyberpunk 2077 to utilize all the latest and greatest. They became too focused on trying to impress gamers with how it looked, than the content of it, and it's clear that's where the majority of their focus was - aesthetics.
If they had just stayed within the limits of what they could do with last gen hardware, they still could have released an impressive game - maybe not the most glossy and next gen looking, but certainly technically impressive and innovative. and laid the proper foundation for a better looking sequel or next-gen remastered version. They put the cart before the horse on this one.