Bingo. I agree with all your reasons, maybe not in that order of importance, but with all of them. Vehemently.
When they started running restrictor plates, I quit watching.
The irony of restrictor plates is that they were put in for “safety” reasons. Well, the bunching of the cars now results in spectacular wrecks, and the recent event that sent debris over the net into the grandstands shows that restrictor plates aren’t a clear-cut improvement to safety. So... why bother with them?
I’ve been saying for years that NASCAR should dump restrictor plates and just go to smaller engines for the “big” tracks. Of course I don’t know what it would cost them to develop an entirely different motor for Daytona and Talladega, but I do know they have to make a few changes to make the existing motors work with the restrictor.
OTOH, I’m a fan of racing, not crashing*. And I realize that my “solution” might improve the former and give the low-info fans less of the latter and cause them to lose interest.
* Along this line, I find road-course racing interesting for basically the same reason a lot of NASCAR fans think it’s boring, namely, because it isn’t easy to pass. You have to plan ahead to pass someone, usually several laps ahead.