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No, it's just accepted that the standard for games in 2005 wasn't as high as it is in 2022. The same way that we can appreciate old cars that are objectively garbage by modern standards but were beyond anything else that was available at the time.
I still think GT4 is surprisingly fun to play now, but it's "surprisingly" fun because my expectations for a 17 year old game are not high. GT4 did a lot well, for it's time.
There are very few games that are actually evergreen, and GT4 isn't one of them. None of the Gran Turismo games are really. GT4 isn't going to be something that is played forever like Starcraft Brood War or Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It's just a game that was good at the time, a time when the bar for a decent racing game was surprisingly low.
This is why trying to copy GT4 outright is a mistake - but Polyphony should still be using the parts that worked and modernising the parts that didn't or that have aged poorly.
It's really not. It might be everything you could ever hope for from a GT game, but it doesn't take much imagination to think of things that could be added to improve it. Being dissatisfied with a game that doesn't bother to include races for International or Super licences isn't unreasonable if you bought the game for the single player mode, for example.
It's okay to be happy with what the game provides while still recognising that for some people it's going to be below some totally reasonable expectations.
You guys should send a cranky letter to PD. That'll learn 'em