I would be a better player today with a balata ball than I was in 1989 with a balata ball for two reasons:
1) Longer, lighter drivers with much, much larger sweet spots that would allow me to hit the ball farther and more accurately, on average.
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But that driver may be 2 inches longer slightly magnifying any mistakes, and that ball will be spin much higher adding more magnification.
For the average golfer, that is a recipe for disaster. If you, are good enough, then perhaps not for you. Are you still steadfast in your belief?
Unquestionably so. Today's lightweight, high-quality graphite shafts are marvels of modern science. The reason the driver used to be only 43 inches or so was due to the relatively heavy weight of a persimmon head and a steel shaft. The "loss of control" due to the extra 2.0 to 2.75 inches on most of today's drivers is easily mitigated by the enormous sweet spots. I'm not saying that today's longer drivers would be MORE accurate than a 43 to 43.5 inch driver from yesteryear, but they would not, in my mind, be noticeably LESS accurate due to the much larger sweet spot.