I think the perfect term is sim lite. It's not perfect and there are certainly imperfections but what games doesn't? PD found the sweet spot with physics in this game, if they can sort some issues through updates it would help improve the overall driving experience. GT will never be a hardcore sim and never claimed to be, it's for everyone.
I'm not sure if you were here during GT5/6 era, but ironically critics called the physics of GT back then as arcade because it's to easy to drive, then pc sims are much realistic because they're harder. Now, we've gone full circle, funny how nature does that. Anyways, I've played GT7 with both wheel and DS and cars not hard to drive at all, some cars have exaggerated oversteer but I'm confident they'll sort it out, GTSport had grip issues when it came out and as far as I remember PD released an update not long after.