I'm pretty sure this is just me being cynical but the long time fans are going to get the game anyway. They'll make a bit of noise online but in the end they'll still buy the game and play it. Why take the time to add all those "hardcore" features when it'll mostly only serve a small section of the community that is already going to get the game anyway?
So adding a slider for race length (with rewards that scale accordingly) takes lots of time to add? Or even qualifying - they don't even need to do a proper qualifying session with other cars on the track, just a single hot lap after a practice session would be better than nothing.
These are not things that would require whole teams and a year of dev time to add.
And you are mistaken if you think people will just buy the game anyway.
Edit: I guess my main point with all of this is the fact that they have been gradually removing fan favorite features that added depth to the game in favor of adding features that make it more casual (or arcade racer) friendly. Assist options (steering/brake assist), the rewind feature, lower difficulty levels, pay to win microtransactions, auto upgrade option for car mods, decreasing race lengths, and now these mods.
So my question is, why are they increasing the options for more casual players while decreasing and removing features that were popular with the players who got this franchise off the ground in the 1st place?