I'm not seeing much difference in the release between 23 and 22 or 21. I thought quite a bit was talked about. May not be up everybody's alley but.. that's no different than any year.
1.Sortable team stats. May not be sexy to some but it opens up a whole new area to be able to see and analyze what is going on in your league.
2.Multiple player deals on the shop screen. Users have asked for this kind of thing for a long time.
3.Dress up the action on the field with alternates and pants. I know that pants sounds silly but it is what many have asked for and it was needed.
4.Throw in redoing the sim engine and IMHO we have a very nice list of features. To me this is a "see it in action" feature, whether in on field action, or statistical results.
5.New rules and options... ties, playoff formats, cba, and more(?).
I'd agree with Syd, that some of the dissatisfaction comes because a lot of things are "under the hood". The things people have asked for vocally at the expense of new features.
Add in that online got a nice security feature. I'll never use it but I don't count it as a "non-feature".
PT? I'll never play either but for those that do there was work done there too.
Tutorials? First thought was "I'll never use them but it's nice for new users". Then I heard them described and, while I will disable after a quick look, I'm not so sure there won't be nuggets in there for us vets. Well see. But surely, even if one doesn't see themselves using this, you can't think this was a small thing to add? Maybe it will even fix the "why isn't that in the manual?" or "why isn't that describes with more detail?" complaints many vets here have asked about for years?
I'm also of the opinion that many that claim "it's the same game version to version" don't dig into the game enough to notice what has been done. They've added so many ways to parse the stats to get a deeper\better look into your league and players. I read posts with each new version and it's obvious the poster hasn't dug into all of the new options for views and filters.
But it's the same game as last year?
I see vets list off things that they see that are "new for this year" only to be shown that feature has been there for 2-3 years. I see vets say "why doesn't OOTP let me do x, y, or z in my league? That needs to be added" only to be shown they already can. And yet we see eye rolls at the thought of a tutorial? OOTP is a huge game and I'm think most of us still find things or ways to do things we didn't know were there.
Feel free to buy or wait, it's up to each of us how to spend our money.
It's just the notion not much had been done that makes me think "huh"? Hell, someone posted is should be called v22.5? Really?
I feel very good about what we're getting with v23. Can't wait for the Friday release on Steam.