Well Nick, you really point it out perfectly: You are pessimistic. Look for example at the zillions of track coming right now for rf. Name me one of them, that really matches the quality of the S2 tracks. Just from the texture, bumps and trackside objects point of view. You might find one, but then look for a fantasy-track for RF, that nearly comes close to Erics tracks. You might find one in the next three years. That's where the worktime goes. It goes into quality.
Besides that, if you believe it or not, I am a damn critical guy, and the devs might hate me for that from time to time, when I go on their nerves. And that's like a lot of LFS-fans are. They are critical, they KNOW the failures, they posted them in thousands of threads in the improvement part, but the difference is: They know, that they are read and the things will change, the appreciate the progress. That is the difference. Got the idea? Most of other gamefans dont accept that, when I say: "Yes, you are right, tire-phys, sound etc. arent good atm, but it's being worked on". Cause a rf fanboy cant say: "Yes, you are right, gfx-engine is too cartoonish, the cars look bad, the physics has errors at slow speed, but it will improve", cause they simply DONT know if it will improve. They just can prey for a patch, or prey that the devs listen to them. Same was it with GTR. The community mentioned a lot of stuff, especially in terms of dedi-server for example. And how were they threated? Nothing happened to a lot of the well known bugs. I take myself the right, to point at those bugs in other games, cause I also point at the bugs in LFS, damn I dont know how often I said, the tires are wrong.
Take your critics about the formula suspension: I havent looked into that, but you might be right, and that's a worthy post for improvement suggestion, but take your post about not spinning brakediscs... Come on, that's a: on the list since years but b: a feature - thank god - way way down the list of important improvements.
Last thing: Whenever I talk with the devs, I am always surprised how far they look, how deeply they understand the problems and I can say for sure, that they are their own biggest critic, with an insight into the real problems of the code that no one of us can match.