Honestly bud, as much as your thought process makes sense. When in the past 15 years has EA produced anything worthy of our money? This is the first one ive purchased since NHL 15 since i heard they changed be a pro and got exactly what i expected, the same game with new players, different stats, and a slightly different be a pro, bogged down with bugs, toxic people online, fake hockey gameplay, **bleep** hockey AI, and tons of microtransactions. Usually i just wait for gamepass to have it.
Paying your money to EA does represent a contract, you pay them and you get a game called NHL 25. Whether you like it or not is not their concern after youve purchased it though quite frankly, thats what reviews are for. If youre seriously not smart enough to expect otherwise or read reviews before you purchase then they probably deserve your money more than you.
Also your point about how large the dev team is, is completely moot. They can have the largest dev team in the world but its not up to the developers what to put in the game unfortunately because they have no power and they need to have a job at the end of the week so they can buy crappy EA games and what not