Maybe you took it wrong, or I didn't expressed it the right way? Sometimes is pretty hard to find the right way to put adjectives on things in a foreign language.
They are GT games, off course, I'm not saying otherwise and I played the hell out of them to the point I got the platinum trophy on both. But I find them so lacking in quality and never felt really invested on either because, for me, the bad outweighted the good. And I think that this is far from a unpopular opinion. Coming from GT4, which was my favorite on the series, they never felt as engaging and, I don't know, in the end I played without the passion or investment I had on the previous entries like it was something akin to a obligation.
Probably the most positive effect those game had on me was effectively putting me off of GT Sport for so long. It gave me perspective and made me experience it now with a far more open-minded take and I'm loving it, it's really great and I'd put it on my top three games of the generation easily.
P.S.: I keep promising myself that I will rewatch The Wonder Years for... years now