1. I know you cited raw grades on this forum before. If I recall you gave Drew Brees' arm strength of 2.4 or something similar. I confess that such a number is meaningless to me unless I know the methodology though. And that is what you cannot reveal. Trust me I get that. I am also aware that many times Donny makes comments that leave us shaking our heads. But there are other times where he cites secrets of the trade. By nature I am not a trusting person. I have no reason to believe you are lying, but nor do I have reason to trust you. So again, my questions revolve more around how the raw data is acquired/determined and I understand why you cannot make that public. But when you constantly bring up "I have data that supports it" I admittedly roll my eyes. I hope you understand my position; it is not meant to be hostile.
2.This relates to the above answer. I have no idea who you are; your faq is vague in this area. Might I suggest citing your educational background or something to that effect on the site? To answer your question, sure I would trust the brain surgeon. I would not trust the guy on the internet who says he is a brain surgeon.
3. & 4. "
I can't tell you if one came in at the very top, but it wouldn't surprise me"
"Based on the data I have, it has never happened"
Beyond my confusion with those statements, I fully agree that Madden tends to overrate rookies. They tend to treat an average top 10 pick as a once in a decade talent.
5. I am a bit confused on this one. We are not talking about scouting prospects and the draft. I agree that teams should draft on traits; that is fairly clear cut to me. But it is not the same as rating players in a video game. In Madden we are dealing with known quantities (aside from rookies obviously). The issue to me is about getting those known quantities to add up. Generally speaking you can use production to grade a player in madden categories. PFF ratings for an OT in pass block could translate to PBK. A corner's grades in man coverage could translate to their MCV rating.
Are there problems? Absolutely. I read the series on QBs in focus and saw something striking. I looked at QB's numbers on out routes and sorted by average distance thrown. I don't remember the exact numbers but one number was significantly higher than the rest. My initial thought was wow this guy must have a canon of an arm. Turns out the QB was Russell Wilson. Not to say he has a weak arm, but I was surprised. I suspect that his high number was due to rollouts or bootlegs. Point is, it creates a problem. But generally it is adequate to look at production and tendencies and extrapolate individual traits.