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Sorry, that's not an excuse. This is something that won't feel right at all if you can get into a pursuit but only because you decided you wanted to be. The police don't chase you in real life because you deliberately tell them to and the fact that something like that can happen in a video game with no real consequences is why it's fun. If the only interaction with cops that you're going to have in NFS Payback is when you pull up to a trigger and otherwise they never show their faces, that is going to make the open world horribly dull at some point as there is nothing that will threaten you when you're driving out in the open. It's just going to be you driving casually from place to place without anything going on (even in NFS Underground 2 there were other racers you could challenge while driving in the open, which at least covered up the fact that there wasn't any law enforcement that was on the prowl for street racers).

Every open-world NFS game since Underground 2 (the FIRST one) bar Hot Pursuit (whose open-world mode wasn't progression-related) has had police interaction in free roam. Most Wanted 2005, Carbon, Undercover, Most Wanted 2012, Rivals, and 2015 all had open-world police chases (and even back in games like the first two Underground games the lack of police presence was noticeable due to the fact games like NFS3 and HP2 existed prior). We THOUGHT they were making police pursuits more exciting in this game after 2015 underwhelmed everyone on that front but apparently that also meant they were only making them something you have to volunteer for.

They may as well have made the bait crates something else entirely (like...House dead drops that you steal) and just had The House chase you around instead of the police because having the police do it makes the whole thing feel woefully hollow (since the police only exist then and only then). The general lack of police presence would be noticeable, sure, but it wouldn't be quite as jarring as a guy who speeds up and down every road in the region, crashing into other cars and objects, yet the police won't even show up unless you touch this very specific box they have lying around. At least having The House be the opposition when you interact with a crate would reinforce an existing theme in the game instead of suddenly introducing an element that is otherwise nonexistent.

You really botched this, Ghost. I can't remember the last time my hype for a game sank this fast. It's rare one feature makes or breaks a game but this is a strong candidate.