Give it to me straight - should I buy GT7 again?

[RikkiGT-R]

I originally bought GT7 on release day and after realising it was a total scam (update 1.07 for example), I was mercifully given a full refund by Amazon. I've spent the last year and a half entertaining myself elsewhere; GT's 1 through 4, to be exact. It's been fun.

Alas... a long time has passed and I'm hoping PD have fixed/walked back on their errors and made the current game more palatable. I appreciate I could read all the threads here and work it out for myself, but there have been a thousand threads since I last darkened these doors and I've no idea what the state of play actually is right now. Are originally high-paying races still nerfed to encourage in-game credit purchases? Have more races been added to the single player experience? Are most of the very best cars still entirely out of reach without a monumental grind or buying credits?

Please enlighten me. I refunded the game but I kept the game files on my PS4 so they would be kept updated "should this day ever come" and I really hope it would be worth delving into it again.

 

[TumeK5]

Short answer - no. The game hasn't received any mindblowing updates.

Long answer: Grinding has been slightly easier as of 1.11, adding better paying events as well as a better payout from circuit experiences. However, the game structure is untouched (no endurances, no championships), just individually added races. 1.11 introduced the 1h endurances in missions, however. Later down the line we also got the car selling feature, as well as being able to buy the rare (previously only obtainable from roulette tickets) tuning parts as well as engine swaps.

I had to go back to my video discussing the 1.11 patch. It's also funny that, despite the video being outdated by now, it's still relevant.

Spoiler: Video with timestamp

But the question is "What would you play GT7 for?" But considering you refunded, buying it again is...a choice as well.

 

[05XR8]

I originally bought GT7 on release day and after realising it was a total scam (update 1.07 for example), I was mercifully given a full refund by Amazon. I've spent the last year and a half entertaining myself elsewhere; GT's 1 through 4, to be exact. It's been fun.

Alas... a long time has passed and I'm hoping PD have fixed/walked back on their errors and made the current game more palatable. I appreciate I could read all the threads here and work it out for myself, but there have been a thousand threads since I last darkened these doors and I've no idea what the state of play actually is right now. Are originally high-paying races still nerfed to encourage in-game credit purchases? Have more races been added to the single player experience? Are most of the very best cars still entirely out of reach without a monumental grind or buying credits?

Please enlighten me. I refunded the game but I kept the game files on my PS4 so they would be kept updated "should this day ever come" and I really hope it would be worth delving into it again.

Yes to all your questions. No, if you’re still using a PS4.

The way GT7 was developed and what Kaz has said about the way to play GT7, it’s best if you’re going to buy a PS5, PSVR2 and a wheel. Certain aspects of gameplay and couple features are not available on PS4. Such as PSVR2 and SOPHY(when those rare special updates occur).

If you’re not buying a PS5, even with the latest cars and events added since you stopped playing, I doubt you’ll feel different about the game.

 

[sswishbone]

No, it's a microtransaction encouraging uninteresting tech demo

 

[eran0004]

You have to play a long time (12-13 hours) to earn enough credits for the most expensive cars, but most cars in the game are accessible after 30 minutes or 1 hour of playing (once you have unlocked the highest paying races). Circuit experience is a nice way too boost your cash flow early on in the game.

I doubt that the game is designed to encourage you to buy microtransactions, they are much too expensive for that. 1 USD = 100 000 credits, and you can quite easily earn 1,6 million credits per hour, meaning each hour of game time is worth $16. That’s more than my salary after taxes are deducted, so it would be a better deal for me to take time off from work and play the game than to buy the credits.

Games that are designed around microtransactions usually make the MT so cheap that it’s a much better deal to buy what you want than to earn it through playing the game.

 

[watto79]

They've made a number of quality of life improvements but no fundamental changes to the game design. If you disliked the game so much you traded it in, I very much doubt your opinion would have changed now.

 

[sswishbone]

You have to play a long time (12-13 hours) to earn enough credits for the most expensive cars, but most cars in the game are accessible after 30 minutes or 1 hour of playing (once you have unlocked the highest paying races). Circuit experience is a nice way too boost your cash flow early on in the game.

I doubt that the game is designed to encourage you to buy microtransactions, they are much too expensive for that. 1 USD = 100 000 credits, and you can quite easily earn 1,6 million credits per hour, meaning each hour of game time is worth $16. That’s more than my salary after taxes are deducted, so it would be a better deal for me to take time off from work and play the game than to buy the credits.

Games that are designed around microtransactions usually make the MT so cheap that it’s a much better deal to buy what you want than to earn it through playing the game.

Doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions. If you are happy to grind and not pay, awesome, you're part of the majority who are not the target.

Invites and rotational classics do encourage it from those who are susceptible to FOMO, PD have had forever to correct the payouts and fix the economy, they haven't. Proves there is a target audience for microtransactions, I'd love a law change banning them entirely.

Also, my other points remain valid. Uninteresting tech demo

 

[Boxster]

I originally bought GT7 on release day and after realising it was a total scam (update 1.07 for example), I was mercifully given a full refund by Amazon. I've spent the last year and a half entertaining myself elsewhere; GT's 1 through 4, to be exact. It's been fun.

Alas... a long time has passed and I'm hoping PD have fixed/walked back on their errors and made the current game more palatable. I appreciate I could read all the threads here and work it out for myself, but there have been a thousand threads since I last darkened these doors and I've no idea what the state of play actually is right now. Are originally high-paying races still nerfed to encourage in-game credit purchases? Have more races been added to the single player experience? Are most of the very best cars still entirely out of reach without a monumental grind or buying credits?

Please enlighten me. I refunded the game but I kept the game files on my PS4 so they would be kept updated "should this day ever come" and I really hope it would be worth delving into it again.

If you thought GT7 was a total scam, don't.
The game has been improved by updates but is not fundamentally different today.

 

[PlanetJanet]

Doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions. If you are happy to grind and not pay, awesome, you're part of the majority who are not the target.

Invites and rotational classics do encourage it from those who are susceptible to FOMO, PD have had forever to correct the payouts and fix the economy, they haven't. Proves there is a target audience for microtransactions, I'd love a law change banning them entirely.

I only got the game a few months ago and didn't follow development, is there a story behind the inclusion of MTs? Did Sony insist they were included or something? Because it seems to me more like PD are almost trying to discourage them. The credits are so expensive and can you even buy them in game? Are they advertised in game anywhere? If so, it's very discrete, not in your face at all, which MTs usually are. I'm possibly just being blind or ignorant here but I think you could play the whole game without even realising MTs were an option?

I genuinely think PD want the game to be a long grind, which I think probably answers OP's question.

 

[jrbabbitt]

IMHO - YES, if you are a fan of the GT series and if you loved anything of previous versions of GT, yes get yourself another copy.

(this is my opinion because i love Gran Turismo and knowing it has its issues, I do not let it get me down, I have my fun with it, i enjoy the online races despite my not being as good as most here, i love the challenges of doing the career races with different cars)

 

[Dave A]

The game has improved since launch, but the structure and eoconomy are pretty much the same (barring 3 higher paying races). There are more chase the rabbit races, there are 3 higher paying races where you earn 1.5m+ Cr per hour, but the car prices are worse now.

The cars in the Legendary dealership have prices that change every 3 months, and in typical GT7 fashion, they tend to go up far more often than down and there are more 20m Cr cars now than there were at launch. And even with the higher paying races, they are an absolute chore to grind for.

The new cars and tracks added are nice, but the fundamental game is still the same. It's up to you ultimately, not what any one on here says, you know what you liked and disliked about the game at launch the best. But if you disliked it then, I'm not sure anything will change your mind now.

 

[hardvibes]

In your particular case, I wouldn't buy the game a second time.

I only play the Daily races A and B because they're engaging and because you can rent cars if you don't have the credits to own them. If these 2 races weren't there, I would have certainly stopped playing GT7 after the first week.
From time to time I also make my own replica liveries, spending hours and sometimes days perfecting them before sharing them. But other than that....hard pass.

-the economy system is still the same
-the offline mode is still the same
-the useless cars are still the same (there are no specific races to use them in matchmaking like the Daily A-B-C)
-the penalty system is still the same
-there's been an awful bug for over a week (again) making you hang indefinitely in the loading screen of daily races and making you lose your hardly earned DR and SR

So why bother? (I mean you)

What gives credits are the Circuit Experiences...and the Time Trials, if you're fast and you're willing to wait one-two weeks to collect your 1-2 million cr for earning silver and gold.

I'm against grinding, especially if it's boring the way it is in Gran Turismo.
I'm also against microtransactions to get fictional credits and I have very little to no respect for people who are willing to pay for that.

 

[AlexWilmot]

Doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions. If you are happy to grind and not pay, awesome, you're part of the majority who are not the target.

Invites and rotational classics do encourage it from those who are susceptible to FOMO, PD have had forever to correct the payouts and fix the economy, they haven't. Proves there is a target audience for microtransactions, I'd love a law change banning them entirely.

No one is FOMO-ing £160 worth of Microtransations into 20 million credits for a legendary car.

The ROI on money spent on a microtransaction doesn’t encourage its purchase as you’re trying to convince everyone.

Also, my other points remain valid. Uninteresting tech demo

We get it, you don’t like the game, but it’s far from being a tech demo. It’s actually idiotic of you to think that or actually you don’t even have the game to play it.
A tech demo would suggest that it’s just showcasing off a particular feature.

For example if GT7 was purely a VR experience to walk around cars in Brand central then it would be a “Tech Demo”.

But it’s not this, the game is far more than that with 481 cars, 36 track locations, 56 missions, 50 license events, online multiplayer races and time trials, 170 races, 10 additional championship races, livery editor, scapes. Doesn’t really sound like a tech demo does it?

The point is you are highly misinformed on what GT7 is and spouting a load of rubbish about it online to justify your weird frustrated obsession with a video game

 

[Imari]

No one is FOMO-ing £160 worth of Microtransations into 20 million credits for a legendary car.

Sure they are. Why not? When there are people spending 4 or 5 figures on microtransactions in other games, I find it completely plausible that someone would spend a couple hundred bucks on something here.

They're just not aimed at people like you. You don't find the ROI reasonable, but that doesn't mean that nobody does.

 

[AlexWilmot]

Sure they are. Why not? When there are people spending 4 or 5 figures on microtransactions in other games, I find it completely plausible that someone would spend a couple hundred bucks on something here.

They're just not aimed at people like you. You don't find the ROI reasonable, but that doesn't mean that nobody does.

Yeah but this person is making out as if the majority of the player base are,

I’m sure a handful of people have bought micro transactions but it’s not implemented or forced in a way to buy them like other games where people are spend 4 or 5 figures in

 

[Imari]

Yeah but this person is making out as if the majority of the player base are,

I’m sure a handful of people have bought micro transactions but it’s not implemented or forced in a way to buy them like other games where people are spend 4 or 5 figures in

Nah, there's no game where the majority of the player base is spending large amounts of money on microtransactions. That's not how microtransactions work, that's why the whole concept of whales exists. The microtransactions in Gran Turismo are specifically designed in a way that Polyphony thinks will encourage a certain small group of people to part with money that they otherwise wouldn't have spent on the game.

It's possible to design a microtransaction system such that you're getting a majority of the player base to spend small amounts of money, but from the pricing it's pretty clear that's not what Polyphony is aiming for.

Polyphony also probably hopes that they've designed them in such a way as to make them able to be easily dismissed by people who are not the target audience. For some people, like you, that has obviously worked. But that's not the case for everyone - some people are not the target audience but still finds the implementation to be detrimental to the way they play the game.

That microtransactions will rub some people the wrong way is absolutely part of the calculation that Polyphony considered when they decided to put them in. MTs and the associated systems are very clearly not something that is a net positive to every single player, and so at some point there was a decision made on what level of annoyance they were willing to tolerate in their game for a given predicted level of additional profit.

Even if MTs were somehow a net positive for every player inside the game, simply having microtransactions in 2023 is going to be detrimental to the public perception of your game and your company because people will see it as greedy and manipulative behaviour. And based on historical instances of MTs and what MTs are supposed to do in a game, that seems entirely reasonable.

 

[AlexWilmot]

It's possible to design a microtransaction system such that you're getting a majority of the player base to spend small amounts of money, but from the pricing it's pretty clear that's not what Polyphony is aiming for.

Exactly this, GT7 isn’t pushing microtransactions on players as @sswishbone alludes to in almost off of their posts.
The microtransactions in GT7 are not I. A way that once you’ve driven X miles you need to “unlock” the ability to do more with a purchase, you still play the game as a racing game.

Polyphony also probably hopes that they've designed them in such a way as to make them able to be easily dismissed by people who are not the target audience. For some people, like you, that has obviously worked. But that's not the case for everyone - some people are not the target audience but still finds the implementation to be detrimental to the way they play the game.

Yeah I can understand that, I’m not the target and someone would be but that someone is a small majority which we’ve seen even on this forum with that poll thread

That microtransactions will rub some people the wrong way is absolutely part of the calculation that Polyphony considered when they decided to put them in. MTs and the associated systems are very clearly not something that is a net positive to every single player, and so at some point there was a decision made on what level of annoyance they were willing to tolerate in their game for a given predicted level of additional profit.

Even if MTs were somehow a net positive for every player inside the game, simply having microtransactions in 2023 is going to be detrimental to the public perception of your game and your company because people will see it as greedy and manipulative behaviour. And based on historical instances of MTs and what MTs are supposed to do in a game, that seems entirely reasonable.

I would say and have said in the past the issue is the low number of high payout events, that in itself is not encouraging people to use microtransactions but rather discouraging them to play the game

 

[Dave A]

Yeah but this person is making out as if the majority of the player base are,

I’m sure a handful of people have bought micro transactions but it’s not implemented or forced in a way to buy them like other games where people are spend 4 or 5 figures in

But you also stated that no one does that.

GT7 does push MTX's, but it does it for it's target audience. The reminders of MTX's are always there, you can top up your Cr whenever you purchase a car or click on one you can't afford, and cars you can't afford are available for limited times being notable.

There is a definite push, it's just not a push that hooks you, because you are not the target. But there are people who have spent thousands on GT7, as there are on other games.

I think you're just viewing what "pushing" is as something more direct, but things can be pushed in very subtle ways too. There's a lot of very clever psychology that goes into MTX's, how they're pricesd and how they're presented.

Regardless of the game, over 90% of revenue from MTX's comes from a small minority of players, but the amounts that they spend through addiction, naivety, having more money than sense etc. is immense.

For most people, I completely agree with you here in terms of how the game can feel to some people:

I would say and have said in the past the issue is the low number of high payout events, that in itself is not encouraging people to use microtransactions but rather discouraging them to play the game

And I think GT7 in general is designed that way. If you aren't interested in MTX's then it can feel like a very discouraging game to play overall, with the car prices, limited availability for months on end and low paying events. It won't for everyone, but it certainly can feel that way for some.

 

[eran0004]

Doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions. If you are happy to grind and not pay, awesome, you're part of the majority who are not the target.
Invites and rotational classics do encourage it from those who are susceptible to FOMO, PD have had forever to correct the payouts and fix the economy, they haven't.

They are probably happy with the economy as it is. Most cars are attainable with the amount of credits you can get after one or two races. The most expensive cars are likely meant to be difficult to obtain, it’s been like that since at least GT5.

The cars locked behind invites are actually not that expensive and the invites are valid for one month so there is plenty of time to earn enough credits for them. Play the game for one hour each week and you’ll have more than enough credits by the end of the month.

Proves there is a target audience for microtransactions,

There might be a target audience somewhere, probably people who have more money than sense. The game certainly has MT, but it’s not designed to encourage you to buy them.

 

[Talon16]

Maybe worth it over the holidays if it goes on sale for $20. For me, personally...

1P is a huge bore. I don't even play it... at all. I used to, but it got old quick for all the reasons mentioned above (chase the rabbit, rubber banding, dirty AI, horrid payouts, etc.). Thank goodness for the Sport Mode TTs or I'd be flat broke as I refuse to grind (more of a pure boredom thing than a 'take-a-stance' thing; games should be fun, not annoying) and multi-player pay is insulting.

The roulette system is still horrible, Sport Model online races are still very lame (same cars week after week, the same tracks being over used, and typically zero strat involved). And, as of the last 10 or so days, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not it will even work. But, since you've not owned the game it'll all be new to you!

The GTWS races (Manu, Nations, Gazoo Cup, etc.) are the best of what the game has to offer and are typically very fun. Other than the TTs, this is all I've been doing with the game lately. The payouts for GTWS are pretty good, but they were just reduced if I recall. One could earn 12mil for finishing up high enough in GT1 class at the end of the series. That being said, it's a lot of races over a long period of time.

Anyway, I'd wait for it to go on sale and go from there.

 

[Imari]

Exactly this, GT7 isn’t pushing microtransactions on players as @sswishbone alludes to in almost off of their posts.
The microtransactions in GT7 are not I. A way that once you’ve driven X miles you need to “unlock” the ability to do more with a purchase, you still play the game as a racing game.

The post I saw said "doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions". The game does encourage microtransactions. To what extent you think it's "encouraging" those is going to depend on both objective and subjective things, but the whole point of having microtransactions there at all is to get people to use them. That's encouraging.

I would say and have said in the past the issue is the low number of high payout events, that in itself is not encouraging people to use microtransactions but rather discouraging them to play the game

Eh. In a game without microtransactions, race payouts would just be a design decision. But once you have microtransactions for in-game currency, the payouts become part of the encouragement towards microtransactions even if they weren't explicitly intended to be so. That's just a reality - if you have low payouts that require people to invest significant amounts of time for progression, you incentivise them to at least look at any alternatives that may be offered.

Most people will look at the MTs, do the math on what they get for the amount spent and decide against it. But the point is that it gets people to look and do the math. You can figure out as well as I how easy it is to make big amounts of money from fractional percentages of whales in a player base of 5+ million. That's why they do this. It works.

There might be a target audience somewhere, probably people who have more money than sense. The game certainly has MT, but it’s not designed to encourage you to buy them.

It's not designed to encourage you to buy them. MTs are there because they're designed to be used.

Saying that they're not designed to encourage the player to buy them is just saying that you think that Polyphony is so incompetent that they spent time on a major feature of the game but didn't manage to make it work in even the most fundamental way. Polyphony does some dumb **** sometimes, but I'm pretty sure they understand the basic concept that if you put time into making a digital storefront with items for sale that you want people to come and buy those things.

As I said above, how much you think the game is encouraging MT purchases is up for debate, but that it does encourage them on some level really isn't.

 

[PlanetJanet]

Saying that they're not designed to encourage the player to buy them is just saying that you think that Polyphony is so incompetent that they spent time on a major feature of the game but didn't manage to make it work in even the most fundamental way.

Honestly? That's exactly how it seems to me lol

 

[Imari]

Honestly? That's exactly how it seems to me lol

Nah. They've been doing MTs for more than ten years now, and the industry as a whole has a lot of experience in this. They know what they're doing. It's definitely not perfect, but it's not non-functional. However, they've been getting pushback on the whole MT idea ever since the days of Vision GT/GT HD in 2005 so I suspect one of their primary priorities is to try and make it as invisible to the majority of the playerbase as possible.

Which should be a good thing, there are a lot of games that have legitimately managed to have MTs without any significant impact on actual gameplay. But you can't really do "cosmetics only" MTs in a game with a livery editor. On some level, they have to be selling progression/power in the game in order to make the MTs desirable. So even if they're making the MTs seem invisible, it's just a trick to hide the fact that there are actual impacts on the game and how it plays for most people in order to make them work. This isn't a new idea, a lot of advertising and related commercial design works like this.

That probably doesn't matter to a lot of people. If you don't notice a problem then it's not really a problem, and so Polyphony's efforts to hide it are effective and helpful. But Gran Turismo is an old franchise and a lot of their biggest fans have been playing video games for a very long time. Those are going to be the people who are going to be hardest to fool, because a lot of them remember what pre-MT economies in Gran Turismo looked like.

It's very much one of those things that once you've seen it you can't unsee it, and it becomes very easy to see how so many parts of the game that are just mildly annoying also seem like they would have those annoyances alleviated through the use of MTs. It's subtle, but whether it was originally coincidental or not someone decided to leave the game that way once they knew they were going to have MTs in it. If the economy was always planned to be brutal there's nothing wrong with making use of that, but it doesn't really matter whether the chicken or the egg came first when the whole point is the way in which the two of them interact together.

 

[sswishbone]

I only got the game a few months ago and didn't follow development, is there a story behind the inclusion of MTs? Did Sony insist they were included or something? Because it seems to me more like PD are almost trying to discourage them. The credits are so expensive and can you even buy them in game? Are they advertised in game anywhere? If so, it's very discrete, not in your face at all, which MTs usually are. I'm possibly just being blind or ignorant here but I think you could play the whole game without even realising MTs were an option?

I genuinely think PD want the game to be a long grind, which I think probably answers OP's question.

Everything I've played there had been notifications for the credits. Then you have "rent the movie, get credits". The interesting point is GT7 has no idea what it wants to be. The prices are so expensive it SHOULD mean people don't buy them, but they remain active, so someone must be.

You can't realistically obtain the more expensive cars without serious grinding or purchasing credits. The game had managed to push both agendas, go PD?

There is much which could be done to rebalanced the economy, PD don't want to, thus player retention is through the floor. If you are happy with that, awesome, enjoy it. However, a lot of players have moved on. Once that happens. It's difficult to get them back.

 

[sswishbone]

Yeah but this person is making out as if the majority of the player base are,

I’m sure a handful of people have bought micro transactions but it’s not implemented or forced in a way to buy them like other games where people are spend 4 or 5 figures in

From your OWN quote of MINE

"Doesn't mean it's not encouraging microtransactions. If you are happy to grind and not pay, awesome, you're part of the majority who are not the target"

Where do I say it is the majority of the player base? I'll wait

 

[eran0004]

It's not designed to encourage you to buy them. MTs are there because they're designed to be used.

MTs are there, but I don’t see any encouragement to use them. In what way to you believe the game is designed to encourage their use?

Saying that they're not designed to encourage the player to buy them is just saying that you think that Polyphony is so incompetent that they spent time on a major feature of the game but didn't manage to make it work in even the most fundamental way.

How competent they are depends on what they intended with the MT and how well it works. You’re assuming they the intention was to encourage players to use them, but the problem with that reasoning is that they would be used a lot more if they were a lot cheaper. Divide the prices by ten and increase sales by a factor of a thousand, revenues increase by a factor of a hundred. If they intended to design the game to encourage MTs, why did they make them so expensive? Incompetence, or something else?

Polyphony does some dumb **** sometimes, but I'm pretty sure they understand the basic concept that if you put time into making a digital storefront with items for sale that you want people to come and buy those things.

But you don’t believe they understand the basic concept of optimal price?

As I said above, how much you think the game is encouraging MT purchases is up for debate, but that it does encourage them on some level really isn't.

That microtransactions exist is evident. It’s not accurate to characterise the game as encouraging their use. I can’t think of any game that is less encouraging towards MTs.

 

[Dave A]

You’re assuming they the intention was to encourage players to use them, but the problem with that reasoning is that they would be used a lot more if they were a lot cheaper. Divide the prices by ten and increase sales by a factor of a thousand, revenues increase by a factor of a hundred. If they intended to design the game to encourage MTs, why did they make them so expensive? Incompetence, or something else?

That's not strictly true, they clearly are pushing them, it's just to waht degree that is debateable.

As for the price, they will know their sweet spot. They won't choose to price them high to put people off, that would be incompetence, it's far more likely to be a defined sweep spot based on metrics from other games selected for comparables.

If they reduced the price by a factor of 10, they would not get 1000 more sales. Not close. It doesn't work like that. The whales would more than likely end up spending a lot less, or at least that's probably what the metrics suggest would happen.

In contrast, you might have a small number more players who say, "why not" on occasion, but there's a good chance they wouldn't make up for decreased spending of the whales. The vast majorty would still avoid them altogether.

 

[Keef]

Not on PS4, no. PS5, sure. I've had great fun and it's scratched an itch for realism and moficiation that the older cames didn't quite address.

I do still yearn for something closer to GT2 and 4 however.

 

[BangsMcCoy]

If I were in your shoes I’d wait a year or two (maybe even more), and also only if I had a PS5. Unless you’re really itching to play it again right now, but I feel you’ll just be dissatisfied all over again.

 

[XSquareStickIt]

I only got the game a few months ago and didn't follow development, is there a story behind the inclusion of MTs? Did Sony insist they were included or something? Because it seems to me more like PD are almost trying to discourage them. The credits are so expensive and can you even buy them in game? Are they advertised in game anywhere? If so, it's very discrete, not in your face at all, which MTs usually are. I'm possibly just being blind or ignorant here but I think you could play the whole game without even realising MTs were an option?

I genuinely think PD want the game to be a long grind, which I think probably answers OP's question.

Before the game launched on March 4th 2022, reviewers got a copy of the game to review, but the credit store wasn't open at the time. I'm not even sure if any of them were even aware that microtransactions would exist in GT7.

The credit store launched with the game on March 4th, and players were shocked by the extortionate prices of credits. Some of them opined that the obscuring of the existence of MTXs was a deliberate move by Sony/PD from reviewers, knowing it'd negatively affect the game's evaluation, and it's hard to argue against that.

It was also worth noting that the "Big 4" grind races weren't in the game at launch, nor were the generous payouts for Circuit Experience, but all the scummy FOMO tactics the game employs to manipulate the player was already in the game, like invites and the rotating car dealers; there was a '92 NSX-R in the UCD costing upwards of 400k on launch day for example, and I'm almost certain I won a Ferrari invite during the main campaign before I even had my first million (that NSX didn't help... ).

No one can say for sure who wanted MTXs in GT7, but for me personally, I very highly doubt a game studio would want to actively make their game terrible and annoy the vast majority of their player base for profit. I will say that I've played games that handled MTXs much better than GT7; I've happily paid for small DLC characters in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and I often forget you can buy currency in Devil May Cry 5, for example. In GT7, the game feels designed to always make one cognisant of cash for credits.

But yeah, to address the OP's question: as many others have already said, the game fundamentally hasn't changed. The campaign is an insult, the AI is so bad it's not even funny, any semblance of an economy basically doesn't exist, and there's a distinct lack of things to do post game. BUT, to be fair, there have been some small, but notable improvements via the updates, like buyable engine swaps, QoL improvements, and so on. For me, the biggest improvement was to the FFB and physics, which was finally fixed in March this year. It's now a proper joy to drive in this game.

From what I can gather in the OP, they seem to be put off by the economy. There are the aforementioned "big four" grind races that net players roughly 1.5 million credits per hour, and if they don't make you sick of them, the vast majority of the cars in the game are actually pretty affordable. It's mostly just the unicorns in the LCD that are still a slog to buy, even with the "big 4" races.

TL;DR: it depends on how OP wants to play the game. If they want to collect all cars, it's still a pain. But to just drive and make your own fun, it's pretty decent, especially with a group of friends.