Agreed. Never liked the fact that they changed that rule. It significantly impacts strategy and the game in general.
Back in the days of having to throw the pitches, it wasn't unusual that the pitcher would intentionally walk someone and then have a hard time finding the strike zone against the next hitter. In what was one of the dumber decisions I've ever seen a manager make, I saw a manager bring in a reliever when the starter was clearly done. So what does the manager do? He has the reliever issue an intentional walk to the first batter he faces. And then the reliever couldn't find the strike zone against the next two hitters -- gave up two unintentional walks, one of which walked in a run. If you were gonna intentionally walk the next hitter, why not just have the starter finish out his game by throwing four soft-tosses three feet off the plate, and *then* bring in the reliever? Maybe the reliever would have been wild anyway, but having to throw his first four pitches way off the plate certainly didn't help him.
I've also seen a pitch intended to be part of an intentional walk mistakenly thrown too close to the plate and hammered for a hit similar to what Atwood did for the Lady Horns in the last WCWS.