I thought the baseball pitcher analogy was a good one, as those guys are actually sending the ball to where they want/need it to be. They use the catcher's mitt, the plate, and even the batter as references for doing this, similar to a pool player using the ob as a reference for knowing or estimating where to send the cb.
A guarterback does have a target in mind everytime the ball is thrown. He doesn't just whizz the ball into some arbitrary area hoping the receiver catches it. He uses the play route and the receivers location and speed as references for knowing where the ball needs to be at the right time, then he puts it there. Sometimes they throw it away to prevent getting sacked. Sometimes they have less than 3 or 4 seconds to process all the options, and the results aren't optimal.
A pool player sending the cb to an exact or approximate target area can only be compared to a thrown football if the ob is moving, like doing wing shots, or if the football is being thrown to a stationary receiver. Still, as with baseball, the precision of ball placement is nowhere near the precision needed to play pool. There is nothing on the receiving end to fix/save an inaccurate ball placement. In baseball or football, the person on the receiving end can go out of their way to fix a bad throw. When playing pool, if the cb isn't sent to the exact place it needs to be, no ob is going to miraculously go out of its way to fix it.