I'm with you Gas12. All the way, it seems (you're not for paid mods, are you?)
I'm a hardcore simmer too, with the Test Drive (1987), Indianapolis 500 (1989), Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix (1991), Papyrus IndyCar Racing (1993) and NASCAR Racing (1994), Formula One Grand Prix 2 (1996), the almost mythical Grand Prix Legends (1998), the first gMotor engine game: Sports Car GT (1999), the gMotor2 games rFactor (2005), GTR2 (2006), GT Legends (2005) and Race07 (2007) pedigree before choosing Assetto Corsa, which I like more than the competition but still consider it way too little to be classed as the ideal car simulator. Just to add another bit: I also have a soft disdain (not a hard one) towards simplistic arcade-game-pretending-to-be-a-simulation games (like the pCARS franchise) and for philosophical reasons I abhor the iRacing business model.
But I have long realized that this is a niche thing. Wanting to have an as-close-to-reality racing experience is a niche thing. I envy the flight simulation dudes 'cos their need for realism is much more catered to than our petrolhead's needs for realism because contrary to the flying dudes, the large majority of people who play racing games prefer easy, over-grippy, too-fast simcade or downright arcade racing games. There's nothing I can do about that. It just is what it is...
I also agree with you that in a time that seems not so long ago (but maybe it's been 10 years or so), people really were better equipped to deal with opinions that didn't follow the PC or "must respect everything" stance that dominates the Western World today. The current "you can't say or think that" stance of today's World sort-of makes me think of censorship or the Spanish Inquisition, TBH.
But, alas, this is the world today. I have to accept the way the music plays and dance accordingly, even if the music make my ears bleed. I'm not going to change the world alone... These things go in circles. It could be said about everything, but focusing on car simulations alone: the day will come when there's no good racing simulator around. It will all be immediate, simplistic, too-grippy simcades and then, out of the blue, a new "Grand Prix Legends" appears. And the cycle will all start again... I hope I won't be too old by then, though...