I'll never use online mode because of that very reason. Silly little children that think it's a circus act.
I have to think that if you could race with people you want to (private race), that you would.
It's probably going to be a long time before the next GT and to miss out on many years of online racing against people you know is, well, terrible.
I race every week with my friends LAN style and it is the greatest racing out there. Of course we are all in the same room next to each other.
As said earlier about MW (CoD), playing humans is a whole new aspect of gaming.
Yes I agree a select few ruin the fun at times (punters for GT, campers for CoD), but with private matches, you play the people you invite, simple.
As for GTmode online, why not?
NFS Shift had a point system similar to GT performance points and the current PP system seems to work just fine.
I imagine races in lobbies for the WRC, NASCAR, Super GT, etc..
These would be less fun if you couldn't tune your car's setup before racing.
Look at it as the same as using the current pro race tuning.
For stock cars and offline GTmode, go ahead, add your tuner/race ready parts, tweek them and go beat some........... AI.
It would be more fun to have your friends do the same thing and race each other (as other GT games in the past) but do it online too.
GTmode doesn't have to be online only, just add online to it.