used to enjoy the contest of pacing between batter and pitcher. baseball is a lot less relaxing now with that fucking clock ticking down in the corner of the screen. if you must have a clock at least stop fucking showing it on the overlay graphics MLB
:baseball-crank:
In general I'm with you. It feels like an (especially) arbitrary tactical restriction.
However, your second point is kind of ironic: you have it backwards. Hitters started swinging for the fences (more than they ever did previously) precisely because of the shift ( :think-about-it: can't use the shift if the ball leaves the park).
The shift came about because Stat Cast data is available for every MLB player since 2015. Stat Cast tracks all balls in play. Team would set up their defensive positioning plan for each batter on their opponent's roster for every individual game based on this data. You can view each player's data for yourself on Baseball Savant. Select a random player and see his spray chart. Pick a previous season since this one just started; there will be more data points available in order to give you the best idea of how this all works.
Regarding strike-outs and homers, the other such outcome, in that it does not involve fielding, is walks. All three went up year in year out (if I recall correctly) between 2015 and 2022. See this video for more on this: Joey Gallo Personifies the Extremes of Modern Baseball.
Finally, while this isn't necessarily relevant with regard to the statistical aspect of this thread, Joey Gallo is actually one of my favorite players. At his best he's exciting to watch in the batter's box and in the field, and I was disappointed to see him struggle during his tenures with the NY Yankees and the LA Dodgers after he got traded from the Texas Rangers before the 2021 trade deadline. In general his performance seems to be on the upswing this year after he signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins.