I have referred this game to one person in my life. That person was my brother. He is a casual baseball fan, but a big time gamer and enjoys strategy based sims with large amounts of data to analyze. I thought being a casual baseball fan and a big strategic gamer made OOTP something that might appeal to him.
This was a few years back. I don't recall the exact year.
He gave it a try though.... and my phone would not stop ringing with questions he had that a "casual" baseball fan needed explained to them. Rule 5 draft rules, player option years, 40 man roster vs. 25/26 man roster, waivers, DFA, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Eventually he lost interest and never picked the game back up. I can't help but think a halfway decent manual that the user actually knew where and how to access could have maybe done wonders there, because to the point I've been making here - all you really need is a few sentences explaining most of that stuff to get the user pointed in the right direction.
So in my real life experience, I can sincerely say that the manual situation might have cost them a customer.
**edit - I actually tried to get him back into the game earlier this year, but in showing him this years version literally the first play he saw was one of those hits to the outfield where the outfielder literally disappears and then shows back up in the bleachers... needless to say, that didn't reel him back in
