I feel what you are saying to a certain extent but here is what I mean. When creating Madden the dev team M.O. should be;
Plan A: Try to emulate/copy the actual NFL
Plan B: If they can not emulate/copy the actual NFL for whatever reason, emulate/copy what other football video games have done successfully.
Plan C: If Plan B can't be done or they can NOTICEABLY improve on Plan B, innovate.