No, CB20 was a major advance and overall improvement over CB19. But I agree that the phone calls are a bit clunky...still it's worth making them.
Recruiting does take time and effort...but so does playing out all the games in a season. Now that I"ve played CB2020 quite a bit, I can move through the weekly recruiting chores fairly quickly, though.
If recruiting is frustrating, with CB2020 you can "SKIP SUMMER" and avoid it, moving right into playing out the season. Of course, for those who want to fly through seasons they can also sim the games on their team's schedule as well.