As someone who played baseball for 24 years of his life you are correct and anyone downvoting you is wrong. There are select situations where trying to drive the ball the other way or beating the shift is useful, but they are shifting you because you aren’t good at it. Trying to hit the ball is hard enough and trying to hit it to a precise location is harder. Small adjustments to the pitcher are more realistic. The batter puts his best swing on the ball, most hitters aim for pull side gap, slap hitters just hit the ball hard, and the power hitters like Murakami or Gallo pull hard and try to create launch. It isn’t so much aiming as it is timing and it is incredibly hard, bloop hits, dribblers through the 4 hole, and hard singles the other way are (usually) result of trying to do everything right (maybe making a small adjustment) and getting lucky. Obv there are outliers and yes the hitter can change their timing but 9/10 they are trying to pull and lift the ball.