A happy medium would be stats that effect your controllers

Don't sports games do this? The stats on my NHL players make it a lot easier to play with Wayne Gretzky than Garth Butcher. Its not that you can't get a hat trick with Garth; its just more difficult.

I don't think its perfect the way its implemented though. I think sports game fans understand that there are differences between the skill levels in real life of players and accept it more.