I've played three seasons with Charlton, finally in the Championship in the fourth season after two years of playoff misery. I like the match engine this year, so far.
My main issue is with the dynamism of the gameworld. Issues with AI youth development are part of this and being discussed elsewhere. But for me it's also just a lack of flux, transfer movement, change, especially in the lower leagues. In real life the team I support, Sunderland, has gone through about five first 11s in five years; that is common in lower league football but not really reflected in the game.
So four years in, I'm now playing Championship teams that look much the same as they did in 2022, but older. Bit boring.
The ideal for me would be improving the manager AI so that you can see transfer preferences play out - Tony Mowbray likes young technical players, Alex Neil likes physical experienced players, etc. As it stands AI squads are very static, full of unhappy players who aren't playing, and often lacking basic components like full backs or whatever. It really pulls me out of the gane, sadly. Not sure how hard it is to implement that technically.