They are bigger, faster, stronger, better physical specimens. And yet their playing time is poor. Pitchers especially, who are now babied extensively with pitch counts and very low inning totals, are still mostly unable to piece together full careers anymore. The current approach does not seem to work in the long run, but it does work for the short term analytics that everyone is using, playing too, and getting paid on.
A player is incentivized to perform extremely well early on, at the absolute best all-out they can, until their initial contract is up and they get the lifetime mega contract and then it doesn't matter what they do. Teams are revolving around the analytics that are based on current short samples, how much WAR are they producing right now? This year? Last year? They are, for the most part, not looking at the future, even as they hand out hundreds of millions for the extended contracts, they are paying for past performance for young guys and paying them for that until they are old.
In the past, players on single-year-at-a-time contracts and a reserve clause maximized income by playing well for a long time. A team generally paid for the next season, based on past performance but a year at a time. To get that contract again, a player still needed to perform that next year. There is no reason not to go all out everything while young and endure the injuries and problems that the current approach of 100% all out every single pitch and play seems to be creating.
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