You realize that MLB The Show and NHL are totally different games and are operated by different subsections of EA. They came out in an interview and said they felt players were cheating themselves by having the fully editable options. It was fully editable until NHL20. Until EA puts a better project team in charge of NHL it won't happen. TRSUT ME, I WANT IT, but I also know they won't bring it back any time soon.
As far as scouring, bro I'm sorry. I'm had GEMS turn from Top 6 Fs and Top 4 Ds into Elites. I've had a Low Elite GEM got Franchise. I've also had a lot of dubs, but we all do. I've also found a few player pop up in Rest of the World and Allsvenken. Its not as many, but usually I get 3 to 5 players between 1 and 250 in those areas every year. I just don't scout them often.
The interviews guarantee play style, so I use it to determine in a TWF with three bars is actually a SNP. They also give you an accurate account of years until the player is NHL ready. They don't really work for Strengths and Weakness, I'll give you that, but then again I scout those. No good having a center with a weakness for faceoffs. (LOL).
I also don't find your issue with Balanced on defense. What I find is that center years, the game leans more heavily one way or the other, so heavy pinch one year and heavy shoot the next, but I always find a couple balanced players.
Now, what I will admit is broken is the 4 bars don't always means guaranteed. What I'd like to see is a training module, like in FIFA were we can train our players to fit certain needs. Like, spending 3 weeks turning from a Balanced/Balanced to a Pinch/Balance. Or six weeks turning from a Pinch/Shoot into a Pinch/Cycle, but that's not a Scoyting issue, that's a general Franchise mode issue.
When you say character values, are you meaning Trade Values? They have nothing to do with Chemistry, its how much they are worth in a trade. So, I'm not exactly sure why you brought this up here.
I 100% agree with your statement about the editing. X-Factors, however, were not added for Franchise. They were added more for online play. You can simply and entire season with X-Factors turned off and get similar results with them turned on. It really only benefits games played by a player not by the PC.
Your final point is actually kind of pointless. You don't about anyone over the age of 32, but I've got Mark Giordano and Marc Andre-Fluery on my team. Both are nearly 40 and kicking it pretty hard. My last play through I got lucky and snagged Pastrnak off free agency and Leo Draistail in a very difficult trade. Both played on my Top 6 until there were 42 and 40. So, yes you can absolutely have older players making a difference on your lines.
So, it sounds more like you are having bad luck with you drafts.
in terms of character values, he is referring to if a guy is super competitive, super professional, gets along with everyone, etc. one would think if you have 3 players who are all primadonnas, they would have bad line chemistry.
