They have different departments just like every other company. It's not unusual to have the game play department work on game play, the art department work on art, the presentation dept work on presentation, the franchise dept work on franchise, etc.......
Game play as well as presentation needed updating. The last 2 versions have been boring to play.
If you don't like the cut scenes or they become repetitious, at least you have an option to skip them. I saw one just today where the home team was beating the vs team by a few scores and with less than 2 minutes left in the game, the camera panned to the vs. team fans exiting.
That adds to atmosphere. Presentation enhances game play.