The competitive gameplay has a great foundation. The only thing holding it back seems to be an increase in the amount of AI assistance that is either intentionally being added after each update or the community has found a way to force the AI to do more than they should be capable of.
Players no longer need to control CBs because of the AIs help with low blocks. Random full power passes and through balls seem to find their targets making counter attacks an absolute mess to deal with for anyone not playing the meta, AI defenders are able to, tackle, intercept, and remain in perfect tight formation unless manually moved by the player on defense who is always running side to side infront of said low block cutting as many passing lanes or open players as possible. Players that do this are also able to spam R1/RB to force aggressive behavior and tighter marking out of their defenders leaving attackers locked in place and unable to shake their man while the controlled player chases the ball.
While this does not work all the time I suggest you go into a couple of games and try spamming R1/RB when an attacker gets near your box. This should make your defender freeze up and not do a thing. Except it seems to make the AI better in some situations. This was also a thing in FC25.
I feel like removing as many assists as possible from the settings could actually help to improve the overall experience for everyone playing fut. You don't see fps games handing out aim bots or full aim assist in competitive modes so why allow them in this game at all outside of the casual experience? Its the same issue efootball has with smart assist.
The only thing that should be controlled or influenced by AI is the positioning of attackers and defenders when it comes to reading the current situation. Nothing more, nothing less.