This seems like a great idea to me. They could easily do something like use last year's playoffs as an extended demo for the next NBA game they make. At $15-20 having half the teams in the league to choose from is a fairly decent deal. They could do other stuff like that, too. They could even go a step further, and make a NFS like this that has completely unique tracks from the main release which upon loading up the full version acts like a regular track pack DLC.
This isn't a bad idea, your impressions are just tainted by their previous failures on the matter. They can execute this right and make it a very tempting offer. Heck, if they're thinking this through they might even try a program where you get another extended demo if you buy the full version of the game (and submit to having your DLC turned off, to protect from people who try to rent/borrow/trade their way into a bunch of free games).
You do not have the right to never be offended.
