Several thoughts:
1. Banning jump cues will never happen, for the reasons discussed.
2. If you did ban them, guys like Fedor will still have an advantage. Fedor played Turning Stone one year (can jump with break cue only) and he took all the weight out of his breaker, still broke great and made tons of great jumps with it.
3. The level of safety play IS way better these days, despite what SJM may think. Appleton said on a video that he’s had to relearn his safety game. When he joined the tour, any full ball snooker was a good safety. Maybe the oppenent hits the ball but they may well sell out. Now players jump AND kick so well that a simple safety like that likely means your opponent will jump it in,kick it in or leave you in jail. He said before he would take the safety that he was 100 certain to get even if just a bare ball safety, but now he has to go for the dead nuts hook, even if there is a chance he will sell out, because the old safe wasn’t safe.
4. On the point of safety improvements, it’s just the increase in knowledge. Efren and Varner (and Sigel) were extraordinary, and as good or better than many of today’s players in the kicking game. But overall the level wasn’t as high. At most many players were kicking to hit it. Earl and Archer were the top 9b players on their eras and were NOT exceptional kickers by today’s standards. Now all top players have learned from Efren and others, know all kicking systems and know they have hit it and get it safe (hit the correct side of the ball) even if it’s riskier because you might miss completely. Just watch Filler and SVB in this rack and tell me the safety game was better in the old days.
Executed to perfect off the point of the corner he had barricaded whitey into for the safety, but t shat a ball in doing it. 