1. I don't think it has zero value on the field. You're singling out the exception (RB's who get a catch for 0 yards). Every first down catch that you find valuable and having value, would also count for a point in PPR. There's value here even if it doesn't exactly correlate exactly to football success as much as PPFD does (which I've already mentioned I believe doesn't need to matter that much for fantasy)
I am not singling out anything except rewarding a catch that gets the offense a 1st down. Saying that a first down is scored the same in PPR is correct and why PPR doesn't make sense because why give a point for all those other catches (some, including shovel passes are caught behind the LOS). The act of a "catch" by itself does not have any value, which is why there are many times, where a play is blown up and we tell them to purposely drop the forward pass. The most important things are whether after the catch and run are whether you get a TD, a 1st down and then how many forward yards to help get your next TD, 1st down or add to the punt/go for 4th down..
Sure, if that's your issue than take away catches behind the LOS. 95% of catches create positive plays. I agree about your point on a catch for a loss having very little value, but changing a whole system and bringing up many other issues, simply to fix maybe 3% of the catches in the league, is overthinking it.
I don't know the exact number but there has been an increase in bubble screens and shovel passes and would bet the completion % is more than 3% of the completions. That being said, not sure how you take away catches behind the LOS, but you are already counting yards for anything past the LOS. I don't see how PPFD changes the whole system more than PPR (which is artificially changing the system).
2. There is a lack of equity (equality?) in positions. It's not perceived. I agree that over time, WR's have become more valuable, but RB scarcity of recent years has almost brought it back. I'm not sure how many drafts you were in last year, but dammmn did the RB's fly off the board early. Almost a fully top two rounds of RBs. I personally like 0.5 PPR best, but full PPR does equal out the RBs and WRs a bit more.
By perceived I meant some people like simplicity, some people don't with some different values and some people feel that they are not equal and should be closer to equal in terms of value. As for the equaling out having 3 WR's helps, but artificially trying to make them equal lessens the fun for me. I think we use 6 points for a TD (usually) and 3 for a FG and 2 for a safety so that it feels more like real football. I also think PPR rewards players who aren't as valuable because you aren't rewarding what is important on the field. there has to be some balance of fun, easy to understand and realism. We coudl come up with the exact formula that each position should get per yard to equal it out but that would not be fun because who can take each yard and multiply by each RB yard by 0.07 or each WR yard by .11? (just an example)
Again you're going back to the 'realism' argument. For many fantasy players like myself, realism compared to NFL value is not that important. We each have our own opinion on it. You just said it would be too hard to multiply those values to make it exact... but live scoring could do that if in fact you only care about live scoring and you're saying box scores are irrelevant.
Realism is part of the balance because you do want the players who are actually good to get points, otherwise (and this is absurd) you might as well give points to the players who have the most drops because it may even out the scoring? I do use the live scoring while the game is on, but there is value to knowing roughly what a play was worth. We all have had a close game come down to Monday night and you are either clinging to a 3 point lead or down by 3 and every one of those 30 yards you are counting in your head. Anyway, my point is that I think players should be more valuable because they are better players in the real game (while striking the balance of what makes sense)
3. As for the box score thing, I think it is more valid than you think. I'm far from old fashioned and all about technology so I do see the point about people using live scoring more than box scores (I do as well). But I want to be able to see, read, etc stats and know if a player had a good game or not. I want to message my friends and say "wow Julio had 19 catches today that's huge for my team" and not go digging for rare stats that may/may not be tracked on common sports sites and have to say "holy Julio got 4 first downs today!".
My only point here is that saying Julio got 19 catches and if he had 35 total yards and 2 fumbles, why should that be a positive day? You may not know that he fumbled twice or threw an INT on a trick play, but they should be counted a lot more than a catch, which again by itself has no value.
Maybe he had 19 catches for 35 yards, 2 fumbles, and 12 first downs.... you're saying That should be a positive day?
Getting 12 1st downs made some of those 19 catches very valuable, but if he just made 2nd 8, that isn't too helpful.
4. First downs also might increase the value of rushing QBs (which is already very high). People want to talk about "oh that 1 catch for 1 yard is pointless", but we're giving the same value for a qb sneaking the ball for 1 inch as he'd get for throwing the ball 25% of the entire field? Wouldn't throwing the ball 25 yards (resulting in a first down 99% of the time) be more 'football valuable" to a team than a 1 inch sneak on his own 20 yard line?
Don't give it to QB's, maybe don't give it to RB's unless it is caught? Maybe just give it to WR's? Make up the rule that makes sense to you, but use it instead of PPR
So now you're only giving a point to WRs, or RB's who catch a first down and don't run for one. Again, what an absolute nightmare for someone waking up and reading stats. Also a nightmare watching a game and knowing to win you need X yards or X first down catches only by WR's to win the game. I like to play a lot of fantasy, but also enjoy a game and this is complicating fantasy to a point it doesn't need to be.
I think this is a prime example of overthinking something. If you hate PPR that's cool, just get rid of it or run 0.374592 Points per reception if you want to make it perfect and only care to look at live scoring.
I don't understand how PPFD is overthinking more than PPR?
See above. I want to look at stats. I want to text my buddy stats. If I'm at work and can't watch a game, and have Julio in 3 leagues, I want to google his stats quickly rather than open up 3 sites of live scoring and hovering over his points in each one to see how many first downs he caught. Does your league reward QB's for completions and ding them for incompletions? If not, why don't you do this?
I don't give points for RB attempts either. But, either I am not explaining it well or you are missing my point, you added PPR which has no value by itself only because it was easy to see. I lean more on the realism side but clearly fantasy is not reality, but when you can reward for something that is valuable I see it being a win win. I see PPFD being far better than PPR is every single aspect, except for being able to see in a ticker what the guy did. But, I understand that has some added fun to be able to do that, but you never see everything as yo may not know that your RB took 40 carries to get those 80 yards and a TD or you wouldn't know that he fumbled twice, etc...Most leagues subtract for picks and fumbles so PPFD is like that but a positive unknown on a ticker. I think PPFD will slowly take over from PPR. It took years of saying what a gimmick the shift was in baseball before we start seeing how many runs it saves and everyone is doing it now.