They added first the free roam to see how it works and perform so far they will adding some stuff later. They had to seperate develop the free roam (it`s a seperate client that wasn`t included directly to the game) SINCE many people wanted to play offline instead of being forced to play online like in NFS 2015.
And also they are listening to the community but they can`t respond to anything because I guess it is overwhelming somehow, reading is enough for the moment.
So just type your suggestion for free roam and I am sure they will add some activities for it since on december ghost games said "we have many plans for the game ..."
I hope just like you guys that they will do something to make us happy either way with DLC and also free content.
I for example can imagine to see activities like GTA Online has or also The Crew and Wildlands has but in Need for Speed style.