I don’t think any of Codemasters/EA F1 games have ever been a simulator. They’re not really trying to be, and they rightfully shouldn’t.
As the ‘official licensed F1 game, they have a duty to be accessible and enjoyable to all types of F1 fan, from the hardcore sim racer, to the 6 year old F1 fan with a PlayStation.
In an ideal world, they’d give us a handling model that was as close to a sim as you can get whilst offering an easy experience where balanced assists could allow kids to stay on track. That’s not easy!! The frustration with the games lately is that the handling seems so far from what we see on TV with the cars having far too much lateral movement and rotation, sliding around the track like the wheels are not even in contact with the track surface. It’s a little more Mario Kart at the moment than F1.