Well, yes, but look at golf. It is forbidden to putt while straddling the ball -- both feet have to be on the same side of the line of the shot. You can't putt with a pool cue either even though it might work much better than a putter. There is a tradeoff to be decided between tradition and innovation.
Exactly, once we gain enough experience from playing the sport, we could see and form opinions on where the line between keeping the sport pure and challenging and improvements in equipment, training and techniques.
The LD shaft is one of those. In my view it did not transform that way that the game is played, it did not make a very hard or impossible shot and make it possible, it changed how people learned to aim. The jump cue made a very hard shot trivial in the hands of beginners and made some jump shots that were impossible or nearly so, very possible. If we gave two new players a standard shaft and an LD shaft, in a week they would be close to each other in skill. If we gave two players that never jumped a ball before a jump cue and a normal cue to jump with, the player with the jump cue would be jumping balls in 30 minutes of practice while the other one would not be close to that in a week of practice. I know from personal experience, my son at 13 or so tried a jump cue for the first time, he cleared a full ball on his third shot. That is why I think the jump cue is over the line for allowable equipment.
Reaching for a shot due to the size of the table is another skill and obstacle in how the game was done. If we are using 62" cues with 6" extentions, with 6' tall players and rolling bridges, that makes the difficulty trivial again. The difficulty of the equipment is overcome by other equipment not skill. Keep in mind this is for sports, that all need to have some challenge in them. It's not like we are talking about better xray machines or medicine here for improving, it's a sport, designed from the get go as something that should be hard to do. If it's too easy it takes all the fun out of being good at it out. Look at pickleball and the people that make fun of it, it's because it's a simpler easier version of tennis that almost anyone can do. But if there was no tennis then it would just be seen as a normal sport.
I was just chatting with some of my friends last night about it, I was beating them all night long and I made a joke that I am in some sort of hell where I am just winning too easy and no matter what I do I still end up winning. It's true, I bet if we could do everything simply, there would be absolutely no joy or feeling of accomplishment in doing it. What is the point of beating players if it's so easy for someone? I guess if the point of the playing is to show off and feed the ego then it's one thing, but I would rather have a good tougher match where my time practicing and experience overcomes the other player, not because I bought a $50 piece of equipment. I would bet all of our (our meaning you fine folks on AZB) favorite matches were against tough opponents where it was back and forth and not against some D or C player that you beat 6-0 even though you made 20 mistakes.
