It’s not contrived. It’s no different than how the rules favored offense that came later. Eventually a rule works until it doesn’t or the game passes it by. If we think about the early 80’s and this rule wasn’t in place, and no one shot the 3 ball well, what would any team need to do except pack the areas where players are more comfortable getting their shot. I wish ppl would stop acting like the NBA, the game that changes decade to decade, and know they need to entertain crowds, just put a dumb rule in the game randomly, just because you can’t think of how basketball could exist if it’s not the contemporary era. The rule had a point, the league changed, the rule was no longer needed. It’s that simple. Maybe try to understand before you just say something is dumb