Yup, I had a similar experience with the 22 WRX. The main complaint from me is the deadass steering, it feels like my grandmother's Camry.Test drove one of these today. Haven’t driven The GRC yet but compared to my 2018 Mazda 3 6MT: steering feel wayyyy more numb. Kind of surprising. Shifter feels much cheaper/tinny and less smooth. Overall interior quality much lower. Obviously a lot faster, and flatter in the corners. Brake pedal feels atrocious. All the reviews mention it but man it is terrible. Feels like pushing into a firm bucket of play dough or something. If the GRC comes close to the shifter and steering feel of my Mazda I’ll be very happy, if it’s closer to WRX I’ll be bummed.
The shifter is somewhat similar is character - they're both notchy but I really like the GRC shifter. Good news, the GRC steering is much sharper than the Mazda 3 (12.7:1 vs 14:1).
The brakes are also firm and linear.