la,
You’re right on target by noting that baseball dogma and tradition don’t help these things get resolved. Those things really do make for great “stories”, and in many cases actually make for more than that, in the form of career makers.
With the bats however, thing took a much nastier turn. Before it was the players deciding to cheat, but with the bats, for the most part its been parents who’ve been duplicitous and leading the charge. Why? Because not too many kids can afford a $300 bat, then manage to send it away to get rolled or otherwise modified to improve performance. IOW, its mom and dad teaching Jr or Jr’ette how to cheat the system! And what’s terrible too, is that often coaches are the ones who encourage and even participate in the deception.