TerFacTor, I completely agree with your view regarding second hand games. But regards the developers, I'm not so sure they have the freedom you say they do. Game publishers care about the number of boxes they sell, not what's in them. For EA Sports, maxing sales means making compelling games where they have competition (e.g. soccer) to take share from competitors, but making less fulfilling games where they have a monopoly (e.g. NFL). If you get bored quicker, then because you're a sports sim gamer, you're more likely to go buy another (hopefully EA) sports game. Gets them $120 of your cash, not just $60. An alternative view is that Tiburon doesn't manage resources well enough to let the developers do their thing. Too many cooks and all that jazz.
Your view that it's the developers fault... well it's possible. But EA's a gaming monolith, and I'd reckon the suits in the big corporate offices are far more to blame for the lack of Madden's innovation than the geek programmers on the shop floor. (spoken as a geek)
Either way, I feel you may be right saying that EA won't be the company to fix Madden. Here's hoping we're both wrong on this, it'll be a couple of dull years if they don't fix it.