Look, the reason you're not getting any responses is because people are very unlikely to want to answer posts that ask, "what's the best game for X" of this series. Why? Because the answers can only be one of two things.
A - a long drawn out answer where a handful are considered and offers several reasons why one is better than others. Which in the end takes a while to write.
or
B - a one name answer with no other info. "It's this one from this year". With maybe a "no question, hands down" type add-on comment attached.
In either case, it's one person's opinion and ultimately useless to you. Also, people know, especially the ones who can actually answer your question (few people have played EVERY year of a game thoroughly) that you are just as likely to not like that game as you are to agree with them because we're all different.
I answer this question several times a year and have done so for about twenty years in different forums. Sometimes it's the "which game is better" question and other times it's the "which sliders are better" question. Both, and I mean no offence, are pointless. What I will do instead is leave you here with info that I've posted in the past that you can use to help you answer your own question on your own. Because, like ice cream flavours, nobody can tell you which game you'll like other than you yourself.
1. On finding "the best game" -
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...post2050112911
2. On finding the "best sliders" (same philosophy applies to gameplay) -
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...31&postcount=2
3. And another one about sliders that I actually wrote 14 years ago but still applies. It addresses the idea of how "best" is something only you can define -
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...ml#post2341167
I hope that is all helpful to you and helps you get why this question is hard to answer. I want to help because I think -- and I know this is presumptuous -- that people asking this question just want to be told, "Play this one. It's better." and that then people will play it but without question, will go off and play other ones anyway. And there is a tiny part of answering this for many of us which is, and we mean it in the friendliest way possible, "go find out for yourself like we all did".
"
Holy crap, this is such a long response, the guy could have just answered my question with his opinion. That's all I wanted."
Ok,.. here's the black and white answer. I think OS community sliders are the wrong way to go. I think
ANY "these are the ones" sliders are the wrong way to go. The concept that ONE set of sliders would address two people equally is flawed. But you've already read my slider opinions above in the link.
'
Balanced gameplay, minimal scripting, overall plays a fairly realistic game' - ok, fine.. none of them. None of the FIFAs in the last 10 years do that out of the box without spending lots of time tweaking sliders. I've been playing sports games since the late 80s. Do you know how many games have fit your description? Maybe 5. And the only soccer ones that come close are PES6 and PES21. The reason isn't because I'm a PES superfan, it's because those games are the only ones that I think you can load up and they fit your description. But it's not because FIFA is less good of a game. It's because FIFA isn't and has never been that game you're describing. It's always been more "fun" simulation than real. If I was REALLY pushed, forced to choose one, I'd say 14. But it was better with community mods that addressed gameplay.
And even having said all that I can promise you one thing. I would be willing to bet all the hand sanitiser in the world that someone would instantly disagree with me. Every game is playable, every game has pluses and minuses, but you wanna try to know them all quickly and that's best done by doing the stuff I mentioned above.