Here's a big downside to the "grounders are grounders, ABs are ABs argument": Relative strength of pitching. It is often the case that the superior team's superior pitching is such that there are an inordinate number of strikeouts and very few well hit balls or baserunners. Thus, the game turns out to be a waste of time. On the offensive side, the weaker pitching on the weaker team does not really help the hitter all that much more than a round of BP.