Pat,
Your dad could better relate to what's happened to the ball because he probably played Maxfli's and other wound brands that came out of the box seriously flawed.
They were out of round before you hit them and became further distorted after being hit.
In addition, they came out of the box with varying degrees of compression despite going through quality control at the factory.
I had a compression machine and rarely did a ball compress at 90.
In addition, I had a tube milled to 5 one thousanths of an inch larger than a golf ball, and rarely would a ball fall through that tube.
Most couldn't even be forced through the tube.
Titleists and Hogans seemed to fare the best.
A scientific study, performed by two Englishman, many, many years ago, found that EVERY level of golfer benefited from playing a higher compression ball.
The new solid balls are all pretty much 100 compression, as advertised.
But, it's not just the ball, although I'd say that the ball is the major component, it's the equipment as well.
You may not remember the old Power Bilt Shallow Faced Driver, a neat club, but hardly one where you could grip it an rip it, unless you liked reloading before the ball landed OB, in a lake or in the woods. Today, with monster club heads, you can almost swing as hard as you want with immunity.
So many wonderful courses and their indivual features, meant to interface with the golfer, have become like vestigial organs that have lost their function.
Whether the ruling bodies view the issue as a negative, as some or many on this site do, is another matter.
Until they see the negative impact as some/many on this site do, nothing will be done to reign in the ball and the equipment.
I'd prefer that bifurcation NOT be implemented, that we all play one game with the same basic rules.