Agreed. It always bothers me when a sports game doesn't put much effort into stats. I'm assuming they probably didn't have the resources to devote too much time into it, but maybe next year?
I could see a mode where every team starts with lvl 1 players. Eliminate the tiers of cards (bronze, silver, gold) and just combine them. Then see how fast you can level up your guys vs the rest of the league playing throughout the season and have a playoff.
If the game was 11v11 and had different offenses/defenses like NCAA and Madden, the offenses/defenses would be sorta like builds for other RPG.
Just some rambling. It's definitely a fun game and my favorite football game on the Switch right now. I like MFL's gameplay, but the franchise mode isn't what I was looking for.