What seems to be misunderstood is that this isn’t a new concept. For example, illegal factions on SA-MP were roleplaying off-map prisons. Legal factions were roleplaying off-map facilities and stations. These don’t exist in game, but its unrealistic and extremely shallow to roleplay being a seven mile long island inhabited by hundreds of people in what is meant to give off the illusion of a sprawling metropolis. Roleplay standards have changed dramatically and this argument simply doesn’t hold up anymore.
The mindset that “if it doesn’t exist in game, it can’t be RPed” is outdated, invalid and essentially goes against everything that most people have roleplayed in the past few years. It makes no sense that one of the biggest population centers in the country wouldn’t have any bridges linking it to the mainland.