I don't have a billion seasons under my belt, but I've played enough with the old and new sims to feel like I have an informed opinion. Firstly, I understand the complaints about the weird mix of recruits in the new engine, but I think this problem will be addressed with as much hype as its getting. Second, the new engine is the only real thing that kept me around. In the old engine, it didn't matter how good you got a player to become or what you molded him into because he was still going to average the typical 10 to 13 points a season and (for the most part) it was almost pointless trying to exploit individual match-ups. There is no point in being able to create great players (through recruit generation and coaching) if you can't consistently exploit those strengths you've developed, which the new engine is exponentially better at doing. All of this is my very humble, humble, humble, humble, humble, humble opinion.