I've played 2k21 and 2k23, both pretty fine for casual/beer golfing with friends while absolutely trash talking to them in voice chat. It's pretty great... but:
The absolutely only reason I got 2k23 was because the 2k21 had stayed full price ever after the 2k23 released, so those of my friend group who didn't already have the game didn't (understandably) want to cough up 60-70€ for the game. Once 2k23 got a reasonable sale, we all got that as it was more affordable - but functionally identical to the older game.
I'm going to assume the same pattern will repeat, and it's only because of the in-game mtx which they want you to buy AGAIN, for basically the same game but with different number in the title. To my beer-gaming group the mtx stuff is entirely irrelevant, we just play with whatever gear the game gave us from the get go, this isn't equipment-race.