I made posts #6, 9, and 25.
None of them mentioned the announcers, the pre-game, halftime, or post-game events/presentation, or how the players acted on the sideline.
I agree Madden's presentation now is as bad Jeff Reed's hair, but I didn't bring it up because that's a point that everyone agrees on. They know the game has no soul and they get past it and play the game.
Do I think APF is better than Madden? I don't know. APF's narrow scope really, really hurts it. I still play APF online (well, before my 360 bricked), and I stopped playing Madden and NCAA a long time ago.