Im not sure i understand your issue but firstly TC in this game is very poor and does not help you a lot really. It just hinders you from getting proper exits. Rather try and commit without those assists and start shortshifting out of corners.
The traction is more difficult to last year, especially on pad since the feedback has been drastically reduced which makes the feeling quite similar to a wheel where you only react to visuals anyway since you dont have any vibration that kicks in before you lose the car or lock your tires.
Overall theres still feedback in form of vibration on the controller and I think it will be a longer learnign curve for pad players than usual which i think is fine. People on a wheel tend to have massive learning curves when the new games come out. Pad was always a bit overpowered and they seem to have nerfed it now which is good i think. makes the racing a bit more fair.
If you are struggling with traction really try what I mentioned here before. For starters the auto gears are usless and *. makes you super slow and hinders you - in combination with TC - of getting decent acceleration out of corners.
Nevertheless, dont forget its a racing game. If you dont want to get rid of the assists you should not complain. Its obvious that all these make you slower and give you a much harder time.