Pedders, see where you fall down here is someone like me had a similar experience with FIFA as me but you never answered the question at all.
Infact all you said was, i know FIFA is slow but I'm having fun and PES is shit?
I mean all your saying is PES is shit compared to glorious FIFA and your talking so much about PES being arcadey, yet it sounds horrible but i played PES 2016 last night on.
Top player
-1 speed
full manual passing and shooting
On those settings, the nice slow pace people love in FIFA, first touch, inertia, ball physics, variety of chances, where all happening and much much more in PES, since in PES the AI, due to the superior individuality. I was playing as Arsenal and yes, despite Man City's formation being totally fucked up, with a outdated lineup with Lampard playing as attacking mid, David Sivla was still chief creator! in the first half there was only one chance! It was doing everything FIFA could offer me in pure gameplay!
This is why i said EA Sports is going down a dead end, last night i compared the PES 2016 settings i played on to FIFA 16 and its horrible i know to say but PES was playing like FIFA 16 and doing everything FIFA 16 was, but much better, more advanced and finally 10x more free! Your not forced into a way of playing in PES unlike in every FIFA game, slow buildup with Arsenal was effective!
My point is EA this year have gone all out to structure the gameplay heavily into being this slow paced game where passing slowly and methodically up the field is the only way to play with ALL the AI teams playing in the same way so the whole game plays in one style. You really cant play any other way!
Then you have PES who make the default game, fun accessible but rather easy and just give you simple and easy options to make it a simulation if you wish.
FIFA shits on PES heavily in terms of atmosphere and immersion with commentary but in gameplay for me its not even a contest. I haven't even started editing tactics yet on PES and teams play with personality FIFA is a whole generation away from. Sorry EA for me have cut way too many corners and the only way forward is to completely strip the engine bare, revamp it and move on from there.
Try 15 minutes, -1 or -2 speed, manual passing and shooting if you looking for the sim elements in PES. I know full well that is just default settings 7-10 minutes. On top player i scored from 30 yards with my first shot on the game using default shooting.