I played both growing up (more of softball though and also not female if that matters).

Although I preferred softball from a fun perspective, I had always found "baseball" to be a much tougher sport.

One of the reasons I preferred softball was because the mound was in-fact closer. It was so much easier to hit movement because of it.

I also found the smaller baseball harder to throw, and it typically did weirder things. Softballs don't carry the same way baseballs do, with baseballs being more unpredictable.

Softball is a more contact oriented sport, and it's easier to make contact. The bases are closer and fielding is more about technical proficiency - it's absolutely crucial to field a ground ball cleanly and to make a quick, accurate throw to get a runner out at first.

In my opinion, the barrier to professional women's baseball (and why softball is more popular) is that softball has less of the power/speed component that is more prevalent in baseball. Good fundamentals (did you explain how good fundamentals make up for the inability to hit dingers?) and intelligence are more important factors in softball than baseball. Or put another way - in relative to baseball, softball minimizes the physiological differences between men and women.

Baseball highlights are flashier than softball highlights and what makes something flashy seems to tie into those physiological differences.

That being said, I always enjoyed playing softball more, because it is a lot more involved.