Fewer water hazards (penalty area be damned). Shorter rough. More ground game. Less bomb and gouge. Greater width. Not sure what we would do about scoring. Do you win if you take the fewest shots or play the most holes. I'm not sold that most balls are lost by choice. I think they are lost though miscalculation of risk/reward or perhaps overestimation of ability.
I knew I'd turned the corner in Scotland last year when, about ten days after the BUDA caravan left town, I played with the seniors on Thursday morning in weather so bad only three of us showed up for the fourteen hole competition. Heavy winds, rain, and for the only time all summer I played the entire round with one ball. I was prouder of that than what I shot. So much prouder in fact I don't even remember what I did shoot as the competition was considered washed out and it wasn't recorded.