I am 60 games or so into my 2nd season of my franchise (playing every game). I have found that its been a fun experience. The game scores, stats, shots and GAA are actually all even for mine at least (a few catered sliders). Penalties are still something I have to figure out. The updates to Franchise can be broken at times but overall can be fun to use and make negations a lot more enjoyable. Once you learn how the AI works its actually better then last game and you can actually set up for powerplays now as long as you are good with the passing. This is the most I have played NHL since 22, for being an offline only player that is huge.
Be a Pro is a dead mode sadly, no real updates or patches since its inception, has caused that mode to have a low population, which means EA won't put much to any time is it. EA created this issue: No updates or changes = low player base - so they won't work on something before and won't now cause no one plays it.
I can't speak for online at all cause I gave up on that mode back in NHL 22 due to poor matchmaking and I have heard that it is worse this year with what they changed.