The reason for the separate gameplay team is because much of the code for gameplay is shared with NCAA. We do this because the sport is just about identical. the fact that we have a separate team has no impact on the gimmick angle. They literally sit right next to our team. Just half of them work on NCAA, half on Madden. By splitting these guys out into a separate group, it guarantees that they focus only on gameplay and realism.
If you feel like a previous feature was a gimmick, this had nothing to do with the layout of our team. It had everything to do with decisions made by either the lead designer of that product or the project lead. It's really that simple.
When we start talking about features for 10, if there's a feature you don't like, you will be in contact with the folks that made the call to include it (myself or Ian, mostly Ian as our lead designer).
Phil