TW3 was in his original state maybe the most stable open-world RPG ever.. if you think TW3 is a "mess", you really didn't played enough RPG games from the past.. I remember some games which could wipe out completely your HDD, shut down your PC, lose all your progress halfway through or you couldn't play the game without it every 10 minutes to crash or game-breaking bugs on every corner.. Fallout New Vegas had enemies who would just disappear under the gameworld.. or many needed cheats to finish Vampire Bloodlines in his main state (which had already a official patch by the developer).. Elder Scrolls (and Fallout 3 and NV) games are notorious for many types of bugs - some funny but many really game breaking.. STALKER games are fantastic games but they have bugs everywhere.. even games from Rockstar are full of bugs.. hell, many linear games had game breaking bugs (Call of Cthulhu DCotE, some latest CoD games) and you know what? Some of them didn't even had any patches !.. you (we all) can be lucky that CD Projekt RED are releasing patches trying to fixed if not all, atleast most bugs..and there are just too many examples of games even from recent years which were in way, way worse state than TW3 - Total War games, AC games, Far Cry 2, Batman AK, etc..
In fact, I can say that TW3 was suprisingly in really good shape when it was launched..
And about the combat, that's really subjective - yes, I played all DS games but not Bloodborne and I can say without a problem that the combat system in TW3 for me atleast is fun.. it isn't the best, the most complex or the most deep system but that doesn't change the fact that I really like to fight pretty much every single enemy in the game.. I like to using my signs, swords, bombs, oils, potions and switching between them and using them to dance around my foes.. it's ok to not liking it - many people don't like combat systems in DS games, Elder Scrolls games, Fallout games, STALKER games, Fable games, Devil May Cry or Bayoneta.. personally I really didn't like any part of the combat system in VtMB, but even with that in mind that game is still after 12 years in my all time TOP3 games
TW3 has some problems that I know about (Eredin, Djikstra, politics, Radovid, more active skills in the combat system, etc.) but it still has many, many great areas in which the game is top-notch right now..