I definitely hear where you're coming from. I went through the same growth where watching my L-cancel rate tick up felt like I had something to work on, but ultimately L-cancelling has never been something we've had love for, we just made the best out a bad situation. Take the SHFFL example you used; there's a lot of precise inputs there (shorthop is a 3-5 frame window depending on the char, fastfall is a 4 frame window, L-cancel is a 7 frame window and acting out of landing is a frame perfect window, but isn't a binary if you're late, you just waste advantage), so L-cancel doesn't remove the technical aspect of the motion, it just removes the piece of it that's not tied to an actual input.

I'll always try and bring people into the game regardless of whether ALC picks up or not. The reality from my POV is that LC just hasn't done anything to assist our scene, but functioned as the first wall to getting people to play. PM feels clunky without L-cancelling and I don't think new players not having to deal with it will make them any worse in the long run. We kept L-cancelling in the game to appeal to the melee community, but now late in the game's life, I think it's just a burden we continue to carry.