It seems to me that the only people who get really bent out of shape about the lack (or quality) of damage in the GT series are Forza fans who seem to be trying to convince us we like the wrong game.
I think that when MS were plotting how to take down the PlayStation empire, they sat down and looked at everything that went in to building that empire, and clearly, Gran Turismo is near the top of that list. So at that point, the question is, "How do you out-GT GT?" MS looked at the game and saw what they thought was a
gaping hole in the seriesthe lack of damageso when they sat down to design their GT-killer, they made sure that damage was at the top of the list of "features GT doesn't have." So out comes Forza with its damage modeling, and the world just yawned. Instead of flocking to Forza and the Xbox in droves like they were supposed to do, they continued to line up to pay good money for an early beta of the next GT game, buying an "overpriced" console in the process if need be. Meanwhile, MS and their fans could do nothing but point at those lines of people in utter disbelief, sputtering, "But
but
gaping hole!
GAPING HOLE!! How can you not see that??"
The fact is, MS just doesn't get it. GT isn't about car damage, and it isn't about custom paint jobs, or any of that fluff. You can get that stuff in practically any driving game. What sets GT apart is that it's a game painstakingly crafted by a car lover for other car lovers, and it exists an homage to the cars themselves. No car lover really
wants to see a totaled Ferrari. They'd rather look at pictures of one parked at the curb. They'd rather look at pictures of the
gear shift. Sure, Ferraris get totaled in real life. We all know that. And car lovers may look at pictures of totaled Ferraris posted on the 'net. But they do so thinking, "Oh, what a terrible thing to have happened. Now I'm all sad," in much the same way they would look at pictures of a burning elementary school.
So no, when GT5 launches with its "inferior" damage modeling, no one is going to care. Just like they didn't care when all of the other GT games came out with no damage at all. Sure, it would be nice to have damage modeling for the added realism, but no one is going to get bent out of shape over its absence,
because that's not what it's all about. When I get my copy of GT5, my friends will all drop what they're doing to come and see it. When they arrive, they're not going to be saying, "Ha! Look at that door flapping around! This game is a joke!" They're going to be saying, "Dude, I'm buying a PS3
tomorrow," and they, along with millions upon millions of other car lovers around the world, will do just that.
Want some proof that no one cares about damage? FM2 sold 2.7M copies. No version of GT has ever sold less than 9.4M copies, and the series has sold over 50M copies in total. Hell, GT5

handily outsold FM2, despite only having 70 cars, a handful of tracks, no damage at all, and a significantly smaller user base (not to mention the fact that the console itself cost significantly more). So, "inferior" in practically every measurable way, yet it still managed to sell more than 47% more copies than FM2. Why? Again, because MS just doesn't get it.