Yeh I feel the same. . the lads gave me a few slaps across the face and told me to pull myself together a few posts back . ..and now I'm falling in love all over again .. . .. especially on Top Player.
I have a bone to pick with you fully manual guys. You all say it is awesome without explaining why so let me do the honours.
1. While it takes away from being able to play tiki taki with barca easily it is still possible and playing a 5 pass move and creating a scoring opportunity is such a reward
2. The ball is so much looser, as a result you see more fouls and animations because the ball doesn't go to the intended target 100% so it overides the scripting. I had defenders lunging for balls more because they not talking the player they are trying to get to the ball. If you are fast enough you can draw a free kick.
3. You feel individuality more because you are depending on your dribblers that you know will win a few extra yards or you use your strong players better to hold of defenders and wait for passing opportunities.
4. Randomness: with the error involved you weigh up every pass, no more pressing x x x to get out of a tight situation. What may look like a passing opportunity can be a very bad mistake in a split second.
5. From what I can recall this was not how PES 2016 was all you had was looser balls and not the accompanied intelligence of your players to fetch a ball that is slightly to the right or too slow to the intended Passer.
6. Shooting feels like a lottery at times and this is a good thing. It's hard as hell to create scoring opportunities now but you decide exactly where that ball is going.
7. Body positioning is now more contextual if you try to shoot or pass blindly while off balance you see the effect how it affects the ball physics
Manual, if it stays this way, will be my way. I was always worried I would lose player individuality but I don't feel stunted and the added benefits I listed are too much to ignore.