I had my gripes with U4 but I must admit, it looks like Straley & Druckmann directorial perseverance and a lot of crunch actually put this out of the door. We knew more or less that some details of the story were different, but the sheer fact that U4 (of all games, Sony's most important exclusive and franchise) was basically..... "not shaping well" is really incredibile, given the pedigree of ND.
They got scraps of a story and characters written by someone else, some gameplay experimentation and unfinished concepts, and in 2 years they basically directed the longest, most ambitious Uncharted ever, while also giving it a poignant meaning in the great scheme of things, a game which showed no signs of it being an originally diverse story. Again: I liked U4, I also found many flaws in it, but in hindsight, Straley & Druckmann work truly is exceptional.