The faction stuff was OK in small amounts, but it really made the game less fun as it was the focus of the game. The single-player story and adventuring seemed to get pushed aside in favor of all the faction stuff. And the faction stuff just wasn't robust enohgh to make a truly interesting game. It's too bad, too, because there were so many great improvements.
STALKER 3 sounds like it might be grabbing the best of both SOC and CS and mushing them together, which would be great.
Bugwise, I had no problems with CS which really surprised me. I was expecting a disaster, but it was less crashprone and weirdly buggy than say FO3.
edit: I've started noticing this weird bug in FO3 where cars suddenly spin around or cartwheel about for no discernible reason. I mean I assume its a bug. :/
Maybe you got one of the new perks where merely looking at stuff makes it blow up?