I wish I could've had more time to play since it came out, but I've put in about 15 hours so far and have some thoughts.
First, physics are terrific. Cars feel more challenging to drive, and you can really feel the weight (or lack thereof) even with a controller. I feel like they respond much better to modifications and tweaks, and testing and tuning is easier because of it. Customization is excellent, too, and I love being able to buy individual components again. I'm also extremely happy to see such a focus on aesthetic mods finally.
AI is not as bad as a lot of people made it out to be. I'm not a racer, but I find it challenging enough, and it seems to actually have some semblance of spatial awareness, finally. You do still see the random braking in the middle of turns for no reason, though.
I don't mind that so much of the game is based on progression in GT Cafe. Yes, there are menus that I just could not care any less about and are more of a slog to get through, but overall I like that not everything is just given to you from the start. I'm used to having to put in some work in GT games, so this suits me just fine. I also like that the game puts such a focus on educating new players about cars and automotive history. A lot of people got into cars because of GT, and it's good to see PD embracing that fact and helping to grow the car hobby in a non-toxic way.
I do get the complaints about lack of credits, though. I don't care about supercars or the 20m credit cars, so it's not as big of a deal for me, but you do actually have to put in quite a lot of work to get money. It's not as bad as it could be, though, and honestly it's no worse than it was in GT4 for example, but if you're used to games like Horizon that just give you everything from the start, you will be disappointed.
I do wish that we could sell cars. Even if we don't get much for them, it would be better than nothing. I've got a bunch of muscle cars clogging up my garage right now that I should be able to sell for a little bit of money, but instead can't do anything with. Even having something like a stockyard feature would be nice.
Graphics are good. I'm on a base PS4 so it's nothing earth-shattering, but the game still looks great. Load times are horrible, though. It's enough to make me want a PS5 just to avoid them. I mostly just tune cars so I'm always in and out of the garage, tuning shop, GT Auto, and Tsukuba Circuit so it's really noticeable for me. I'm able to get used to them, but still, they really suck.
Overall, I feel like this game is everything I had hoped it would be. There's a TON of content, the car list is great, and PD fixed the right things and kept what wasn't broken. It actually feels like a numbered Gran Turismo title should feel, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for this game in terms of updates and DLC.