No, it wouldn't. GT is the premier racing game on console, while people complain a lot about always online few will not buy the game because of it. The game also cost a lot more to make than older games, and $60-70 is worth less then what it was before. Something has to give and ultimately microtransactions are a financial requirement.
And you think for a second that, after GT Sports existing for years basically as "game as a service" while they did content on the fly... that didn't fund/pay the investment in car model development and tracks nicely upfront?
This isn't a game launching in the red and trying to recoup costs, it's a game largely made on the shoulders of it's predecessor that from certain standpoints was basically a glorified paid beta. And the "Lego's" they built be it tech and assets during it's tenure were ready in time for a numbered game, several years past. Then there's the licencing, that makes it a "theorectically expensive game" but they clearly managed to charge less for the cars on GT Sports, I doubt manufacturers increased their fee's or good guy Sony did it out of their own accord.
The game basis is great, mind you, but the whole "oh, the game was expensive to make" so everything has to be expensive is bullshit.
What a masterpiece.
Love the logic here. If I can't have the exact same experience in <arbitrary distant future>, then I don't want to play now.
I can imagine you walking through the arcade 20 years ago thinking "I don't want to spend a quarter now because I'm not sure these games will be here in 20 years".
It's an outlier thought, yes. And going on metacritic and post 0's and 1's for this game (or most games review bombed), it's an incredible amount of people focusing on the bad to make a point - a total hivemind. But it has been proven time and time again that it's the only way companies will respond to the shit they thought they could get away with so, companies are effectively training people to behave like this.
Anyway, that doesn't change the fact that the online requirement is shit or that they actually avoided huge parts of the criticism here.
I don't feel like I have to have an online connection to play a game offline that I purchased. Time and time again this problem happens, remember the Xbox always Online requirement?
Minor inconvenience most of the time, yes. But it certainly feels like the game/console/thing you bought isn't really yours, that's the same issue people have with right to repair and things that go out of their way to limit the way you use something you bought. There's something called illusion of choice, and they at least have to strive for that, that's the current status quo, everything is looming but it's not draconian, so it feels like a choice. In reality it's not, but it's easier to swallow in some cases you feel you get something out of it. In GT7's case you don't... That's the issue, you get nothing out of it.