Nice review mate. I've opted not to get EA FC just yet! I don't have much interest in UT. Biggest thing that gets me about EA games, it feels like who can do the fanciest tricks the most often, even watching pros on Twitch, feels less like football and more like showboating.
With that, and me being a very bad player in the first place, I decided to go full manual in football games probably around the time of FIFA 16. The satisfaction feeling you get from scoring a wondergoal because you had to actually put the effort in to aiming your through balls, passes and shots is what makes football games. Manual, while rewarding, never gets any attention from EA and leaves certain types of passes broken.
So my football fix is currently SP Football Life 2024, which is a standalone mod of PES 2021.