I don't doubt for a second that the various analytics/marketing departments have a bunch of cool information, which the CEOs/decision-makers end up not really using -- which would explain why the Orioles have been behind the curve in various areas for years.
Hard to say what MLB knows or has been doing, but if they were at an all-time-high, say, 10 years ago in attendance and are at a current all-time-high in revenue, my guess is they're going to be pretty conservative with their changes, rather than wondering "how do we get back to how it was in 1979." Much to our chagrin. But anyway, maybe there really is something about the modern game, or, say, the game as it was in 2009 (e.g.) that really spoke to people.