I dont know how 'it's the same', though. I feel it's impossible to shoehorn in a 'proper' traditional GT single-player mode into a game where the design is focused around balanced online competition.
For one, there's still no real upgrading of cars like before. I think that already mostly disqualifies it from ever being 'the very same old GT thing'. Because that was always a major part of the design and enjoyment of going through the career. People loved getting a new car and then upgrading it til it could wreck the AI with zero problem even if you weren't a great driver. Or even for enthusiasts, it was just nice to have your car and make it your own using the parts *you* wanted to have on it. Car collecting doesn't mean much without a sense of ownership of the car, and there's no better way to feel like a car is *yours* than to upgrade it to your liking. Paintjobs in GT Sport go a ways in helping this, but as car lovers, messing with the actual hardware of the car is just more meaningful, whether you're a casual or more hardcore.
Then if we look at what we actually have in the way of content, it's pretty darn sparse in terms of events. This is like a super miniaturized version of the 'classic GT' structure. And yes, that makes it very different. The same as playing two levels of Uncharted is not 'basically the same' as having 15 levels with the full game. Quantity of events allows for a good length of playtime along with offering a much better variety of choice.
Car content is a known criticism but it applies to GT League as well. Car collecting is a lot more fun when you have lots more cars to collect. And like with the quantity of events leading to more variety in choice - quantity of cars leads to more variety in choice in terms of cars. If I have to pick one of two cars, the choice is meaningful, but it's a lot more interesting and personal when I can pick one of twenty or more of any given type. Plus GT Sport is just way too modern car-biased, like to a crazy extreme, which also ruins a lot of the fun in collecting. Your garage in the end is never going to have all that much spice and variety.
And of course tracks. The limited availability of tracks in GT Sport will necessarily limit how long GT League will be enjoyable. Just adding more events isn't going to cut it because there's only so many tracks to fill these events and there will be no choice but to rehash certain ones over and over.
I think that with a LOT more cars and tracks, this new single player mode could be grown into something that will moderately assuage the criticisms of GT Sport lacking in this department, but I think it will inherently never be 'the very same'. It's pretty clear the game is designed around competitive online play and ensuring that remains the focus will necessarily create an imposition on the single player side due to balancing reasons(why there aren't real upgrades anymore). But as things are now, I cannot say that this update somehow changes things for this game much at all. I would still not at all recommend this to anybody who isn't interested in competitive online racing. Anybody who tries to tell somebody, "Oh but this has single player again just like before!" to convince them to get it is dishonestly misleading them.
