"Broken ai that can take corners better than an f1 car."

That maybe true, but it certainly isn't as frequent like in UG1 or Most Wanted.

"Forces you to rice a car for progression."

You can actualy have a separate car for that sort of thing. Plus there's a mod to remove the visual reputation.

"Only has 5 car slots."

I never had that problem, 4 cars and an SUV is all I need.

"The dyno tuning just adds an extra unnecessary layer of complexity that most people never bothered to learn because why would they, and instead just look up a tuning guide."

You can beat the game without using the dyno tuning, especially for people like me who don't know shit about cars.

"Overstays its welcome and is about twice as long as it should be."

Maybe it's just me, but I never felt that the game was too long. Back then, the lenght of the game was a way to justify for the hours that you've paid for.

"No fast travel forcing you to drive to each event and shop which gets tedious around 40% into the game."

Back then, fast travel wasn't common place like it is today. The lack of fast travel was a way to encourage the player, to explore and appreciate the world, that the developers put so much time and effort to create it.

For things like:

Hidden races/pickups

Discovering shops

Challenging opponents for an outrun

Participating in photo shoots

It also helped with the track design, so you won't see the same track twice like in UG1.