Madden has a lot of issues but a former Dev was explaining things to one of the youtube creators awhile back a few yrs ago. The problem is most fans will not accept the real reason for madden issues. I'll just use cliff notes here on the issues
1. in order to make the game better the Madden team was using an engine that had so many algorithms it kept that it would take almost 3-4 yrs to build it to what it should be. The data has many of the players info and stats so they don't have to regenerate or build them from scratch.
2. This means a lot of the features already in the game would need to be taken out and reworked. The Dev said he left the team before EA took out many of the franchise features people loved but said they could be put back in at some point but the issue was again the data base built up
3. Theres certain things the NFL WILL NOT ALLOW IN THE GAME EITHER. NFL doesn't want to see low attendance for games say the Colts, Dolphins, or other bad teams when teams are doing poorly. They don't want to see the helmets popping off. Madden also can't use the word CONCUSSIONS so Madden uses I believe Stinger (Can't remember the exact injury) to substitute for concussions
4. For the PS5 for example if Fans want a great game with all the features they asked for the new engine would need to be built from scratch. Most of the features would have to be completey scrapped in order to put them back in the right away. This means fans shouldn't expect this incredible high tech game
5. The Madden EA team now is only half the size as it was in 2005-06 so theres more work but with less man power
I'm by no means defending them but a lot of fans are so irrational. I thought 2k NFL wasn't great. Great graphics but the game play was too stiff, too much of an arcade style game and not really that fun. In terms of Madden itself they should be better but the main people who started working on the game ####ed up from the beginning using an engine that can only handle so much data. Because the pressure they are under if they were to change that engine fans would riot when they realize all the work that has to be done to make the game better including stripping fan favorite features for maybe 1-2 yrs just to build the engine to what it should be. Fans just expect on hey new engine they should be great. I would love to see dynamic weather like PES uses and stuff like that. Madden however put itself in a hole with the engine they use and considering how irrational gaming fans are the truth would never be accepted by many.
Actually most Madden haters who actually pay attention are perfectly aware that it all needs to be torn down and rebuilt because they're building on top of a stilted, poor foundation. And that they'll never do it because they'd need a 2-3 year development cycle to pull it off. We know, it's well documented. That's why Madden sucks and barely changes every year. Trust me, most people who want a good sim football experience, the NFL version of The Show, wish it was financially viable for EA to take a few years and start over, we'd make that "sacrifice" because it's not worth buying every year for a roster update anyways.
I get that a ton of the game's limitations are legacy issues from ten years ago, and that's the problem. But ironically none of the stuff you mentioned as things the NFL won't allow even registers on most people's wish lists for what Madden should be able to get right. Zone and Man coverage are busted. AI teams can't tell the difference between 4-3 OLB and 3-4 EDGE players, or 4-3 DT and 3-4 IDL. They can't figure out how to cause incompletions (leading to realistic comp%) without wacky airballs and ridiculous tipped ball animations when most NFL games see just a couple high-tipped balls per game, and they're all heart-stopping in real life when they happen. They're common-place in Madden bc crazy contested incompletions are the only way the AI can slow down a human player without tons of INTs or egregious drops that don't correlate to player ratings. Player models are wonky and don't look realistic, they're all weirdly thinned out and lanky, nvm the equipment issues. Blocking animations are still trash and non-OL subbed onto the line can still block the same at 180 lbs with no blocking stats. Defensive players are sticky on blockers until a tackle animation triggers, then they're sticky on ball carriers...so you can never actually feel like you're controlling an elusive tackle-breaking guy with vision, you basically need to break an animation and then break away with pure speed to make big plays in modern madden. Substitutions still don't work and AI teams don't use them correctly. 5+ years into the franchise mode, none of the drafted players progress into the same type or same level of players that the game's stock updated roster comes with, so the mode is pointless as the league's younger drafted players deteriorate the talent pool into one-dimensional role players who for instance can only ever be good at Man or Zone on defense, or can only become good Run or Pass blockers (not that OL ratings work well anyways).
The on-field gameplay and animations are broken, repetitive, and boring and don't resemble the actual sport. The ratings don't effect the game in an intuitive or meaningful way outside of a few. The AI is trash and teams don't change schemes correctly to utilize the high ratings their players DO have. An AI team will draft the best EDGE prospect ever with 90 block shedding and play him as a 4-3 coverage OLB. Obviously the franchise mode is broken, drafted players don't progress correctly, the XP system is idiotic and works poorly, contracts and the salary cap don't work correctly, compensatory picks don't exist, RFA tags don't exist, 5th-year options on 1st round rookie contracts don't exist, Supplemental draft doesn't exist, UDFA doesn't exist in a meaninful way.
So on and off the field Madden is broken. People who like to play H2H can at least learn to exploit the meta aspects of the game to play in whatever way works to enjoy competitive play I guess, but it's a poor representation of actual football.
Hell the Madden Championship or whatever was just won by a dude who didn't even roster a QB lol, had a Punter at QB all game and ran the ball every. Single. Play. Silly that that's even possible.
Now I'm not saying you don't know this stuff, I know you're anti-EA and kind of agreeing with me.
But EA being unable (more unwilling but technically unable since to fix their broken engine and the garbage foundation the whole thing is built on would take a multi-year development cycle that the suits in marketing and such wouldn't allow) has nothing to do with unfair or irrational fan expectations.
People who pay attention know why it can't all be fixed in 1-year development cycles. THAT's what they're mad about, the futility of the current cycle, not that it isn't fixed year to year lol. Most would sacrifice a couple years of worse than mediocre individual "new" Madden games for a big jump forward in 2023 or whatever, but it'll never happen from EA.