I have a theory: these players were not deleted at all. They were simply made inaccessible, as their faces are evidently still in the game, and I doubt that these many High-Res faces would take up 8KB in size.
The bin files have IDs associated with them.
- Team ID, Team Name, Team Emblem (pointer)
- Stadium ID, Stadium Name, Stadium Pic (pointer)
- 1st Player on list ID, Player Name, Stats, Attributes etc.
- 2nd Player on list ID... and so on
Using a PC we could decode the bin file to easily manipulate these, not only saving time editing on PS4 (and potentially importin from a CSV file), but would enable us to use Player IDs of inaccessible players, such as the ones deleted from the game with updates AND maybe even official classics like Rivaldo, Ronaldo and perhaps even Maradona.
Too bad I can't decrypt the bin file even if my life depended on it