I suspect you may be partly right.
Although the features you refer to exist, some don't appear to have been developed sufficiently to have a telling impact. I also suspect that if they did, the developers would be telling us about it; I believe I'm right in saying the purpose of arrows and the way to use them beneficially has never been adequately explained?
Essentially, every game you play in T11 is won or lost based upon the number of stars your players have. If you beat a stronger team/lose to a weaker team, I've seen nothing in 20 seasons to suggest it was the result of the player's tactical expertise/inexperience (as much as we'd like to think that was the case).