If I remember correctly, one of the reasons you have many Payphone missions and also missions where you only read a letter as cutscene are because the developers found it very difficult to animate the characters as it was the first 3D game of the series and they were not yet accustomed with the 3D engine of the game. In the next games, the cutscenes tend to become more interactive.
![(PS5) HITMAN 3 - New York, Bank Heist - Cinematic Run [4K 60FPS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GRkO7IiY3mI/mqdefault.jpg)
If I remember correctly, one of the reasons you have many Payphone missions and also missions where you only read a letter as cutscene are because the developers found it very difficult to animate the characters as it was the first 3D game of the series and they were not yet accustomed with the 3D engine of the game. In the next games, the cutscenes tend to become more interactive.
I suspected as much but after playing the 2D games, stuff like that just reminds me of those games👋