I think the main frustration with Madden is that it is the ONLY NFL game on the market. If there were other choices for so called "simulation" NFL games, then there wouldnt be a bunch of people on these forums complaining how Madden never delivers. Another thing is that every year, everyone has high hopes for Madden making a simulation football game, but it always fails to deliver. Although Madden has never been a simulation football game, every year EA claims it is. Every year they add all these useless features instead of concentrating on making gameplay as simulation as possible.
The truth is EA needs to scrap the whole Madden engine, and replace it with a better one that actually works. Unfortunately that will probably never happen as long as EA has the exclusive rights to the NFL. Why would they? They have no real incentive to make this product the best, because they have NO COMPETITION! They have a monopoly, and will most likely continue to make poor representations of the NFL until they finally have a competitor.