It's just not debatable to me that the best pros of every era have swung very hard at the driver when they deemed the situation/shot called for it.
So how often did they deem the situation called for it? All day Thursday?
What percentage of the time did swinging "very hard" work out for players "back in the day" before modern equipment vs. current players swinging "very hard"?
How come players on the junior tour have their driving averages drop when they make the big tour? How come said players say they dial it back to score well enough to compete on the big tour? How come Ben Hogan generally won driving distance contests, but seldom drove it as far as his opponents in tournaments?
Not sure where we are on this topic. Modern equipment and the modern ball has definitely has allowed players to swing at/near 100% effort more often. No doubt. That is not in dispute from me. I was merely pointing out that players have always swung aggressively at driver. I think I proved that with those videos.
What modern statistical analysis has taught us, though, is that you are generally better off crushing it and finding it and hitting the next one than you are smoothing it along "skillfully" or "artfully" or whatever you want to call it. The art/finesse of golf still happens on the approach (watch Tiger hit irons, to this day, if you want to see a master class in how to control your golf ball), around the greens, and on the greens. But the tee ball should be ripped whenever possible. Closer equals better. Always has. It's just that it's hard to change people's long-held beliefs about things they care about.
For most long to very long expert players, if there's about 40 yards of distance between danger zones and the rough is manageable, you are almost always better off crushing driver and dealing with the consequences than "laying up" or "playing safe." There are, of course, exceptions, and the thicker the rough, the less easy that decision is. And there are always plenty of holes where the is NOT 40 yards of distance between danger zones, so even players who "get" this new system will play plenty of holes over a season where driver is definitely not the play and they will hit 3-wood or 2-iron/hybrid.
And while "angles" into certain pin positions on certain greens do play some role in decision making, modern equipment is such that virtually no pin is inaccessible to expert players with a sharp-grooved, low-bounce 60* - 64* wedge. More importantly, if you just always hit driver on a hole where an angle does help you access a certain pin, you will
still score lower, on average, than by "chasing the correct angle" to the green. It's (virtually always) simply better to be 105 yards with a crappy angle than it is to be 142 yards with a perfect angle. And keep in mind that a good percentage of the time, you will be 105 with a good or perfect angle! also, there's no guarantee, that by chasing the correct angle into a green, that you will pull it off in the first place! Sometimes you will be 142 and with a mediocre or bad angle when you could be 102 with a mediocre or bad angle. That's what makes "sending it" (the new term, LOL) the way to (generally) score your best.
I just wish more courses were set up so that you could only send it on maybe 9 or 10 of the driving holes. Too many courses they play on tour allow the long guys to hit 95% driver on too many holes. I don't like that either!
Playing aggressively off the tee simply lowers expert golfers' average scores. If they're off with the driver one week, big deal. Most now know that, on most holes, hitting it far trumps playing "safely," over time.
Much more to say on this topic. But I'm not really sure what the exact topic is... LOL