It's just so hard to love the skateyness and the jelly-like over-the-top ragdoll nature of the game. PES is (by comparison) solid - even if that leads to it being formulaic.
Don't get me wrong, FIFA more closely recreates modern football in my opinion (to play, not to look at) - with individual skill having much more impact on the outcome of a game, and with the variety in all things (particularly shooting).
You see videos like the one
@slamsoze posted in the PES 2019 thread today, of the AI scoring the exact same goal, game after game after game (and the AI's first-time passing is through the roof post-DP4, which is my personal pet hate that I can't get past) - and you realise that, whether FIFA is good or not, PES just isn't a good game against the AI (whether it feels great on the ball or not).
Going back to PES 2017 has made me realise that 2018 and 2019 have tried to open up gameplay and add more freedom of movement, which has forced the AI to become a perfect ping-ponging same-goal-scoring machine. Going back to PES 2017, you can feel the rails that have cursed PES since literally the first PSX games. But the balance is 1000x better. In my opinion.
I honestly don't think that (up to now) they've had a big enough development team to create an AI that can realistically cope with how many more variables there are when you make movement as organic as they've done with 2018 and 2019 (hence why they use the same patterns of movement all the time, i.e. the low-cross goal) - but they don't care about AI. These changes are for the benefit of myClub etc... (The same applies to FIFA by the way, but sliders save the day.)
I'm really enjoying my current FIFA 19 career mode - but at least once a game I'll see something jelly-legged and silly, and the AI will move forward like it's a basketball court, and... It doesn't completely spoil it, but, it does a little bit.
Your ability to enjoy the game depends entirely on your willingness to "look the other way" when that stuff happens. I can, because I don't feel like it (usually) affects the gameplay too much, and because they're not cheats (just a horrible defect of the engine that affects the AI too) - whereas PES making Huddersfield ping-pong and score the same low-cross goal that every other team scores against you... It permanently affects gameplay, and I can't "look the other way" from that.
I've said it before but Frostbite is ruining everything - not just FIFA. There are reports from guys developing games like Anthem and Dragon Age, decrying the thing. If development of the old engine hadn't stopped at FIFA 16, I think it would have been incredible by now.