Fans are brought into a game(s) by a contested contest. A low scoring game, whether football or any other sport generates just as much intensity as a high scoring game.
I think there are two levels.
Level 1, "Look!!! A guy did a thing!" At this level, we're watching the individual performance at the play level. In between big plays, it's the live action version of "The Pub" on here. People talking about their stocks, their little fckers, some hoah, whatever. No attention to the "war" but big attention to the individuals on a big play... the "DID YOU SEE THAT" approach
Level 2, "Sports is theatre for stupid people." Of course this is tongue in cheek, but it captures the level p8ryts is talking about here, and it's the higher level. Every game is a must-win situation. There is a plot (we have to win, they think they do, but we're the protagonist.) There is motivation: We have to win. There are obstacles: The other guys get paid. To make it interesting, we can posit that the refs are against us too, and so on. The main point is that interest in the sport comes from engagement in outcomes and the vicarious participation in the struggle. Every game up to the last one you play, there are small denouements, little morals you can glean. That's why it hurts so bad when your season's over. It's just... empty. End of play, and no little bow to tie it all up, no matter how you try. There's no "next week we have to stop the run better. This is the lesson learned..." This is "the world will never be the same... but we're not in it." Sure, you can move on to draft talk, but that's a very JETE way to live, draft-to-draft.
But like I said, level 2 is the higher level (and a smaller slice of fandom), followed by level 3, which many of the guys here are on, people who seek out all-22 angles on every play so they know what
really happened, etc. They're an even smaller slice.
Level 1 is the big bulk of the population, the SportsCenter theory of sports.
That's the flaw... you make it high scoring because more people go "Look! He did many big things! This truly was a performance for the ages... oooo something shiny! What were we talking about?"
That's the most prevalent type of fan.
Also, a Level 2 guy with the whole opera playing in his head, also responds to Level 1 hype. It's just that it doesn't go both directions.
So the main point is that yeah most people want more big plays, more home runs, higher scoring games, whatevah, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.