They aren't wasting the money, though.
More people will not buy the game because of no real NFL teams, no real NFL players than will buy it with all the modding in the World.
They're making a hell of a lot more money this way because than they can change a couple things here and there, make the game a tiny bit better and everyone will still buy it the next year because they want the most up-to-date rosters available and unfortunately, you have to pay $60 a year for that.