I'm not sure we're saying anything differently. In the past ("traditional") the home-town scorer would lean toward giving his pitcher a break via an error, or his batter a break via a hit. Today, it's more balanced for home and visitor, and with a more pronounced lean toward giving the fielder a break than you or I would like. What they did at some point, I believe, was tighten up the definition of "Ordinary Effort", which is the key to whether a missed play can be called an error or not. Or maybe this has always been the wording, and MLB decided to enforce it. Either way: It's interesting to me that a play may be called differently in low-A ball versus the majors, though that's not the issue here. Anyway, while paying lip service to calling errors on poor fielders, the main thrust is to grant every benefit of the doubt.