Is this in the Imperial Mall quest in Pacifica? Have to hack into a van or something, then talk to some Netwatch guy? A quest trigger bugged there for me as well last week, there was a door that should be open that wasn't, had to reload an earlier autosave and replay for it to trigger properly.
Other than that one large bug, the game has been great, little bit of jank but no worse than say, Skyrim without the community bug patch. I only purchased it in the last steam sale so missed all the rough stuff.
I think it might have been that? It was in one of the first missions. I agree though on your other points--my experience playing the game up until that point was quite good, hence why I spent hours trying to get past the issue.
Other than that one large bug, the game has been great, little bit of jank but no worse than say, Skyrim without the community bug patch. I only purchased it in the last steam sale so missed all the rough stuff.