100% spot on afaik. When I was in my teens, the most I knew about offenses and formations and whatnot was pretty much predicated on Madden for a while lol.
Once I began really digging into the X's and O's of football, and specifically EP, I remember thinking "Wait, so some teams motion a receiver and depending on where that receiver motions to, it can alter the OTHER receiver's routes, all at the same time?! That was the "think outside the box" moment for me and was when I really started to gain an appreciation for how creative plays in football can be.
One final thought: when people say Brady is a "system" QB, this is exactly what they are referring to. People say the system makes it "easy" on Brady, and while that's true to a point, it still takes a smart, capable QB to run this highly complex offense. All the EP does is help maximize the production of those who can handle it, assuming you have the smarts on the rest of your offense to implement it.
We're lucky Josh has a big arm AND a big brain.