Disagree.
To me the first two saints row were generic, flavorless clones of GTA games with no really redeeming qualities and somewhat lacking in terms of personality and mood... While GTA was delivering hits after hits with GTA3, Vice City, San Andreas.
Then GTA4 came out and it managed to suck out most of the fun of the series. The protagonist was booring, gone was the funny tone, the story was bland, it was all about going bowling with your cousin, graphics were atrocious on PS3 (like someone smeared vaseline on the camera in an attempt to hide the gazillon jaggies), the driving was terrible, the city was bland, the humor was lacking and town felt empty of anything to do asides from going bowling and getting drunk.
Thankfull, at that time, it seems like Volition realised that there was a market that was unhappy with GTA4, and they decided to fully embrace the humor/quirky nature to deliver Saints Row 3, a game that had way more personality and originality than any previous iteration. Was it perfect ? No, but it imho sure as well was more entertaining than GTA4 ever was, and as such was imho the closest the series has been to being "better than GTA".
That said, GTAV managed to bring back the fun while really pushing the boundaries and making a gameworld that felt real, with interesting characters and imho a great narrative... Meanwhile, Saints Row went all in absurd with superhero stuff, essentially switching genres to something more akin to infamous or prototype... Which is fine, but It might actually be a little too over the top for my tastes.
