Not to sound insensitive, but when Madden is implementing features, I don''t think they should be basing their implementation with a very small % of people in mind that have hand disabilities. They make up such a tiny proportion of the population, and probably an even smaller percentage of the gamer demographic that Madden should implement the feature how they see fit and have an accessibility option that allows for the feature to be automated, turned off, or even potentially performed differently.
That seems to be the standard around gaming these days. Devs are making features that have options to make their games more accessible for those with handicaps, but they don't design their games around that small percentage of people.
You are correct in that even those without any issues with their hands aren't dying for a mechanic like what OP is suggesting. I'm obviously a 2k fan who preferred 2k over Madden and I also preferred 2k's button tapping to that of Madden's button holding, and now trigger holding, but neither method is my preferred method as I noted in my earlier post. I would rather see turbo done away with completely and if you wanted to go 100% of your player's speed, then you'd push the stick all the way up. If you wanted to slow down, you'd simply push the stick up less than 100% depending on how much you wanted to slow down.
I'd honestly like to see ball carrier moves revamped completed. I think offensive players need their own strafe mechanic that the CPU utilizes. Running backs in real life, strafe or hop around behind the line before they find a lane to try and burst through, where as in Madden you and the CPU pretty much get the hand off and run in a direction and it makes cutting up-field or cutting back not work in the same manner as real life football.
And with WR's, how often in real life do we see WR's with the ball who catch it and turn around and sit there without taking off immediately. It's pretty often. Guys catch the ball, turn and dive for an extra yard or two, they catch it and turn upfield, but hesitate or try and figure out where to go as the defenders square up and try to limit where they can go. In Madden you catch the ball and turn up the field running automatically.
Screen passes in real life see WR's and even RB's that catch the ball, go slowly with their linemen at times, sometimes even strafing as well, allowing blocks to be set up before they start running up field. In Madden you see the WR's and RB's catch it and outrun their blocks more often than not... if the WR isn't forced to sit there for 10 seconds before being allowed to move.
With EA focusing on the authenticity in breaking down for open field tackles on defense, I would love to see them one day overhaul the ball carrying aspect of the game for the user and CPU so that breaking down was a part of the offensive repertoire as well so that Madden could get away with the full speed at all times, ping pong gameplay we see.
Even special teams play would benefit from this a lot. Look at how punt returns play out in real life. Guys catch the ball, the gunners and coverage team typically break down and sit in place trying to close lanes down to limit the return. The return man usually catches the ball, they may run a little at first, but they also break down and stay squared up letting blocks develop, they may run and get near some defenders who break down to close them off, but the ball carrier breaks down as well and tries to slip through the defenders, sometimes getting through, other times getting stopped right there.
What happens in Madden? Punt returner catches ball, defenders run full speed into punt returner to make tackle or punt returner catches it and immediately runs upfield, not allowing any blocks to be set up and they run into traffic full speed and that's the end of the play. It eliminates a huge part of the return game not being able to break down on offense and not seeing the defense break down in appropriate ways as well. EA is attempting to potentially fix half of that. If the offense could break down, and the CPU finally became an aware being that didn't run into traffic, zig zag like an idiot, and actually slowed down, set up blocks, bounced outside, etc. then the entire game of Madden would improve and we'd see special teams plays get some very much needed improvements simply because the on-field gameplay became more authentic.