Yeah, I remember being touted as the most realistic football sims ever created when they were new. It's the story of computer gaming. At one point, Kick Off 2 and Sensible Soccer were the most realistic football sims as well. Just have to see it in context. Perhaps PES were considered more realistic on the PS2 back when it was new, compared to how people see PES today, but there's no doubt in my mind that PES today is a billion times more realistic than the the PES of old. It just doesn't seem that way because now there's a much tougher competition in FIFA than there was on the PS2. If FIFA hadn't had such success in this generation, I doubt people would complaint that much about today's PES games.
People so easily thinks that what once was truth must remain truth forever, but when it comes to computer and console gaming, that's impossible. Look at the back of a gamebox from the C64, and you'll often read words like "hi-res" and "realistic", but in the context of time, that wasn't necessary false. However, it sounds like pure comedy when you compare it to what we have today.