I am in an identical boat. I couldn't remember the last Madden I bought so I booted up my PS4 last night and looked and saw it was Madden 16. It didn't feel like it had been nearly 3 years since I last bought one. The sad thing is I have been doing exactly what you described to get my football fix in as well. I played 4+ seasons of NCAA last fall/winter as well as a decent amount of 2k8. Here recently I have been thinking about biting on the Madden 18 sale on the PSN, but I've been fighting that urge by playing a new 2k5 franchise.
What really irritates me is that 2k5 is honestly starting to show its age a bit now. It's amazing it made it into 2018 before I felt it was outdated at all, but that time has finally come. What irritates me the most, though, is that we are in 2018, Madden 19 is about to release and I honestly can't decide if I will buy it or stick with a game from 2004! In any other sports game or genre of games it'd be easy to choose the 2018 version of a game over the 2004 version, but Madden has gone all over the place so much the last decade plus that I can honestly sit here and debate over whether to play a PS2/Xbox game from 2004 versus a modern game on the PS4/Xbone/PC. Maybe I've read too many negative views from OS and my vision of Madden is tainted a bit. They have worked on a good number of my biggest issues with the game like injures, penalties, and ball physics, but things like CPU playcalling still look to remain an issue. Of course, I don't think 2k5 had the best play calling either, but at least it had variety with coaching profiles.
You nailed it on the head saying Madden needed badges, tendencies, whatever to differentiate players, coaches, and owners. It's 2018. Every other sports game has had their players personalized except for Madden and NHL(I don't know if Fifa does). NBA 2k has badges, traits, tendencies. MLB The Show has badges/traits. Madden really needs to get traits that truly make for an authentic experience. I'm not sure if they still use the traits system they used to use. It was a step in the right direction, but it was toned down to the point where there was hardly any difference among players. The guys with the Run out of Bounds trait ran into contact at the same rate as players Seeking Contact or whatever it was called. The only real trait that didn't feel nerfed beyond belief was the one that caused a QB to just throw it deep when sensing pressure. The only issue with that was the AI QB's threw 5 picks a game.