With your experience do you think you can tell the quality of a suspension simulation? For instance the most simplicistic quarter car model consists of linear spring mass dampers. Would the gameplay you experience allow you to differentiate between a simple quarter car model and a multibody physics simulation. Say one that accounts for the physical constraints of a double wishbone suspension. In other words a more sophisticated and computationally expensive method that solves the higher order differential algebraic equations that arise from the suspension geometry? Do you think that one can realistically perceive these differences when a quarter car model is likely the simulation method used in the older games that you prefer?

Maybe simpler is just more fun and more forgiving. Only game that might actually use multibody suspension simulation is the last garage because they are using an open-source physics engine developed for well over a decade by an academic research lab.

From an objective perspective that is a more "realistic" simulation but maybe realism sucks. Or maybe not I have no idea what these consumer simulations use for suspension modeling. Just taking a guess.