i couldn't care less what Donny does in his updates. That doesn't prevent if, lets say hypothetically, i trade OchoCinco to a team that has a #85 and they change Chad's number to #87 when in real life we know he'd pay to keep #85. If Matt Forte decides to wear a new facemask i can't change it.
It makes 0 sense to take away control from the users when games these days are giving users more and more control. EA seems to go in the opposite direction.