That famed realism of having an undead Senna (and Hunt from previous years), comatose Schumacher and what looked like a 100 year old Prost on the grid?
That famed realism of having drivers like Mahaveer, Deledda, Calderon, Samaia and Gelael having the possibility of making it to F1?
If you want to have realism then you'd only have one or two drivers per year who would be available. For example, this year Lindblad might be someone who can make it to F1. If the stars align then maybe someone like Fornaroli can find a seat at Haas if Hamilton retires and Bearman moves up. If Williams lose one of their two drivers then maybe Browning can get a call-up. That's 3 out of 22 who have a realistic, if long-shot, of making it to F1. The rest are FE and IndyCar fodder who'll never move upwards. So should we only have those 3 previously mentioned as available as that is realistic?
You can package it up however you like, but 'realism' is not the reason. It's because if they make them available this year then nobody is buying next years until the game is cheaper as the drivers are already available in the previous iteration. You'd basically only be paying full-whack for a livery update and occasionally a new track (but you'd also lose one). If we wanted to humour the paper-thin excuse of 'realism' then make them available from season two only, even if only for new saves. But they won't because they're chasing that almighty dollar every year.