iRacing's like online multiplayer system in rF2?

Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini all the same purpose with various implementations. So too are Race Sims.

Online competition can be spontaneous or league style. In any event they take an administrator.

Most here would agree that rFactor1&2 is the most realistic in terms of physics and feel, and those are the features we paid for, nothing more. As far as driver rankings, online, etc., thats an entirely different set of features and costs. And few of the other implementations have really come up with quite compromising solutions .

What it boils down to is if multiplayer competition is the desire, the best solution is to join a private league and stick with it through the series. It seems to take a Herculean effort to launch and conduct a league, because it does take a Herculean effort. As a result probably 4 out of 5 who attempt to start their own simply fail. That 1 of 5 that succeeds does so because someone has stepped up and volunteered the time and server costs to administer a series. A Grand Marshall with full power. Been there, done that.

To directly answer the OP's question, it's pretty simple. There is no upside for S397 to develop those aspects of features or services.

 

No upside, can’t agree, if anything there’s no downsides to it apart from the time it takes to implement

 

lol I care less about the new competition system and more about them putting in the work of constantly updating and improving on rF2 and moving it forward, in whatever way, be it UI, comp system, content, visuals, support, marketing, you name it.
I've done some racing in iRacing before I got sucked in by rF2 and the official competitions grow old quick.
Even in iRacing that is known for that, it's the league racing where it's at for me but the cost is not justified when there's rF2 out there.
There's one thing that would create excitement and that is some sort of driver rating.
Now stats are both a blessing and a curse so iracing's idea of basically using the safety rating as a performance rating was kinda brilliant to avoid deterioration of the driving standards by people worrying too much about their performance stats and create a good racing environment with side by side racing instead.
I guess that means I am being very patient in waiting for both the new UI and competition system unlike most rf2 regulars apparently

 

To me,the answer is in the number of people that tries to qualify in the Shadow contest :99,9% of them KNOW they can't enter the top 30, but they try anyway. If they are not there to win, what is that gather them on the servers? Simple: measuring themselves against a comparable opponent, a real human, not a BOT driving a programmed line on the track on a car with different physics. In my perspective, the ability to have multiple choices to employ yourfree time are always welcome. For S397 what matter is that despite how much free time they have, customers play RF2, casually, professionally, in a league, offline, online, matter very little, more versatile is the system, more people could enjoy it.
Studio 397 underline the great versatility of RF2 platform, I don't think they will make a different choice with they online activity.