This. So much this.
It doesn't seem to bother as many people as I thought, but lack of licenses is something that really turns me away from PES. Of course gameplay is incredibly important, but at the same time part of the reason I play football games is to emulate real world football or to take the club I support to glory. It's just not the same when they're called 'North London Red', have a generic kit and faces that don't bear any resemblance to their real life counterparts whatsoever.
From what I've played of the two demos so far, I'd personally say gameplay between PES 2014 and Fifa 14 is pretty even. For Konami, that's a big improvement in my eyes, Fifa has outdone them for the past three iterations. But as Fifa has all the licenses and PES has next to none, it becomes a no-brainer.
Konami will never beat EA when it comes to licenses, so for them to truly have the better footballing game they need to blow EA out of the water in terms of gameplay, not just match them.
This, of course, is just my two cents.