Exactly. The tight pocket proponents need to understand that it makes for a less interesting spectator event. It is a better test at the highest levels, fine. watching 10 ball with WPA rules on tight equipment is purgatory. You know you will get to see something better someday and the match will eventually end, but you suffer while it is on. i Know some people like the super tough conditions to watch. But if you want a broader audience it isn’t the way to go IMO.
Gonna agree to disagree, at least from a personal watching perspective. if people wanna watch "entertainment", then they can watch the Mosconi Cup, with people in the audience drinking beer and wearing QAnon Shaman with body paint, or whatever. That, and women bent over the table with judiciously chosen camera angles are what the "broad audience" wants to watch. That's fine for a television audience and whatever, but should hardly be the guiding factor in what the professional scene should look like.
For those of us with an intense interest in watching the game played "perfectly", then the 4" pockets, and the style of play they require to be consistent, is fine.
If you loosen the pockets up where such "robotic play" is no longer necessary, then the results become much more random, with a ton of subpar players winning. The few ultra elite players suddenly get reeled back into the field, and the top prize money starts getting spread around, and you get back to the point where no one makes more than about $100,000 a year..
And you still aren't gonna get a ton of people watching, outside of Asian countries. Pool hasn't been super popular on TV (in America) at any point since Mosconi/Fats, and that was specifically a manufactured format, that had zero to do with testing professional level play. Entertainment is entertainment.. And a true test of pocket billiards skill looks different than that entertainment.
Now... I WOULD consider the value of loosening up the pockets a little, while also implementing a short time clock.... But again.. This is only something you can do for televised matches, and not practical to do across all matches in a tournament... UNLESS..... That came in the form of chess clocks, where each player has a "time bank", that puts them under increasing pressure if they take too much time early in a match. That is something you can have implemented across an entire tournament, televised, AND non-televised matches.. It stops slow play, and should give you some good drama for TV, when one or both players starts to feel time pressure. If the matches are not coming under enough time pressure, then take 10 minutes off each player's clock for the next event.. Etc, etc..
