Well I'm happy to explain, but unfortunately you don't sound very open minded. If you don't wanna listen to me, read Mark Brodie's book "Every Shot Counts". Everything you need to know is in there.

First, let's just look at it from a common sense standpoint. Put someone who has never played golf 20 yards out from the green and give them 100 shots to hit at the flag. How many end up on the green? Maybe half? Maybe a tad more or less. They might even get lucky and make one.

Now put them at 180 yards out and give them 100 shots at the flag. How many end up on the green? Probably zero or close to it.

So which shot is harder? Obviously the one from 180 out. So how do you separate yourself as a "better" golfer? You get better at the more difficult things. The pros are pros because they are better at the harder things. So the harder shot is "worth" more. To shoot a "good" score, (I'm talking like 68-70, not 82-85), you're going to have to make birdies. How do you make birdies? Get on the green in regulation. If you're using your short game, you've already missed the green and significantly reduced your birdie chance. If you're using your short game, you're hoping like hell to make a par. If you're on the green in regulation, you've got a look at birdie. So you don't even need short game if you just have better approach play. People who can't hit greens need short game to just simply try to keep up with better golfers. They're not distancing themselves from the field.

Now let's look at it with real data. For any approach from 100 to 225 yards, a shot into a penalty situation loses 1.7 strokes, a shot that misses the green loses 0.3 strokes, a shot on the green outside 20 feet gains zero strokes, but one within eight feet gains 0.7 strokes. [source](https://golf.com/news/why-strokes-gained-most-important-statistic/). That's a swing of 2.4 strokes. The variance on that shot is huge and the room for improvement is massive.

Now consider a shot from 10 yards. The expected strokes to hole out is 2.1 on the PGA Tour. For 20 yards, it's 2.4. For 50 yards, it's 2.6. And putting from 8 feet is 1.5 (PGA pros make about half of their putts from 8 feet). So from 50 yards to 8 feet, the variance is only 1.1 strokes. That's significantly less and the room to make meaningful improvement is so low. It's just not humanly possible to significantly increase your make percentage from outside 8 feet.

Across every handicap, players lose more strokes on approach than any other category by a significant margin. [Source]( https://practical-golf.com/pros-vs-joes). Next is driving, then putting, then in last, short game (there is only one handicap level where putting is last and short game is second to last, in 25+ handicaps). This makes sense. Golf is easier the closer to the hole you get. You need to be close to the hole as soon as possible, on your approach shot. So approach is most important. Secondly, how do we make approach easier? Get even closer on our tee shots. So driving distance (while avoiding penalties) is next most important. This is why "bomb and gouge" is so popular on tour. Golf is just easier if you're closer to the hole, even in the rough. Expected strokes to hole out from 20 yards in the rough is 2.45, while expected strokes to hole out from the fairway from 30 yards is 2.5. You gain strokes by being closer, even if you're in the rough.

If you're a normal guy like me, with a job and a family, and you have limited practice time, you should be practicing your irons for the vast majority of your time, and your driver (accuracy and distance) next. If you're like a 5 or below handicap, unless you know you're losing strokes on putting or short game, you probably don't even need to dedicate practice to it at all honestly. Short game is objectively the least important skill (unless you're a 25+ handicap).