They still are. Rex Dickson was recently quoted saying that Franchise mode is still "by far" the most popular mode in Madden NFL speaking to total player count. Ultimate Team modes simply retain players far better because those modes actually have game design thought put behind them, unlike most franchise modes. Madden 17 did a lot of catching up, to this end, but it's still not as robust as Ultimate Team is, and bringing back presentation bells and whistles or archaic removed window dressing features isn't going to fix that.