I think another GT7 delay wouldn't have helped it. The problems with GT7 (tuning the economy to encourage microtransactions; not enough races; underuse of some tracks and overuse of others; refusal to update things that seriously needed changing) would almost certainly have stayed. Sure, there would have been more content (although it's entirely possible that the stuff released in updates were already finished and now just added in updates to create artificial interest in the game) and more polished - not that GT7 is unpolished - but I doubt it would have changed the game in a way that would justify its 87/100 rating on Metacritic. If reviewers reviewed the game today it would have got nowhere near that number and is insulting to GT4, since GT4 is only one point ahead of it on Metacritic, and it's pretty obvious GT4 is leagues better than GT7. GT7 wanted to be the true sequel to GT4 but failed that catastrophically.
I paid for the deluxe edition of GT7 and as nice as the bonuses were and as beautiful the steelbook is, I did not get my money's worth. The same happened with FH4. Some may remember my very critical thread on the game from a few years ago. This was during a time when I was incapable of properly putting my thoughts into words and that's how I got to saying that FH2 on the Xbox 360 looked better. What I meant with that particular point was that the map was more impressive and had more photo opportunities, compared to FH4's relatively samey map. For FH4, it falls into the same camp as GT7 for me. They're both games that for differing reasons fail to justify their own existences. GT7 is a Gran Turismo 5 tribute act, and FH4 felt like a further watering-down of what I liked about FH1 and FH2 while bringing not enough to the table for me to feel it was a great game - which is pretty ironic, because I have put more hours I believe into FH4 than any other Forza game or possibly racing game overall (maybe bar GT6 and Burnout Paradise), solely because FH4 was loads of fun playing with friends at home by passing the controller around and just messing around. As a singleplayer experience, I wasn't convinced unfortunately.
When it comes to FM, I want them to actually make a game that isn't a tribute act; I want it to actually be a worthy successor instead of just FM7 with better graphics and physics. I own FM7 and FM6 and I just couldn't get into them. For me they just lacked something, like there was no incentive to play the game. It comes down to a number of reasons, but I think career structure did it for me. FM4 had two options to play the career. You could play it the way it wanted you to in the world tour mode, whereas I chose to play it in the open 'pick an event' mode which was a lot closer to the Gran Turismo career structure which I always loved in games prior to GT7. In essence, if the new Forza Motorsport allowed you to play the career your way without limiting you to a specific way to complete the career like classic GT allowed you to then we're onto a winner. Of course I shall remain sceptical but I hope Turn 10 learn from the decline post-FM4 and make something truly special; a game that we will still be looking back upon fondly 18 years later like we do with GT4.