Honest question: Do you people never have a place to be or something?
I have never wandered the city and always have a place to be, either home, mod shop, clothes store, stunt jumps, missions, heists, etc.
So if I get shot at during my travel, sure, I'll fight you, but after either you or me die, I just want to leave. If I wanted to tussle I'd join a deathmatch. Nothing is earned out of the random fighting, and it's only wasting my time.
So yes, if the player is going for another kill, or a revenge, I will turn on passive, because I just don't have the time to waste on fighting randos without reward.
Does this make me a boring player towards you guys? Yes, sure, it totally does. Does this make me a boring player towards my friends who are waiting for me to host a heist, mod my car, or host a mission? No, the fact that I want to get going makes them happy because they are, like I said, waiting for me.
This is why passive mode is not an "easy way out", it's because we just want to do something else. This game is full of everything, golfing, movies, races, stunting, parachuting and much more, and yes, part of that is shooting and fighting. But like you might not want to do a race that moment, we don't want to fight on that moment, so we turn on passive, because you're either going to keep coming back for more, chase me, or camp at my vehicle.
I can't believe I had to spoonfeed this to you guys, I don't care if you guys are obvious trolls, I just want to get this out of the way because it's just so arrogant and egoistic of you people. It seems like you people have something to proof. I don't care if you can snipe me from three blocks away, have at it, run a tank over me, have at it. Just let me go back to what I was doing after that.
Spoonfeeding rant is done, and hey guess what? Steam is back online, see you in the game.