Art,
Of course you are entitled to your opinion but I could not disagree with you more,especially given the reasoning you listed.
Fields are deeper..of course they are deeper, why are they deeper?
The technology has enabled more people to achieve the playing skill to qualify, the money pool is enormous and attractive to more people and like you say the foreign golf influence is much larger.
That does not make current players better in my mind, it means that there are more players because more players can make a living (exactly as you mentioned) not that the talent pool is any deeper.
I think the best players now are not equal to the best players back then and that is with their increased strength conditioning, the numerous swing coaches and team they have supporting them, the conditions of courses are so much more pristine. Of course the distances are often longer because the technology has made the average courses useless and have turned the game of golf into a distance chasing endeavor.
Tiger probably should win more majors, the field does not have as many competitive players that can challenge on any given weekend, but I would be interested to see his overall results over his career, if he will not only win more but also finish in the top 2 as many times.
We also havent discussed how Jack pretty much took off regular golf in his middle to late 30s and spent more time with his family. Tiger wont be doing that, he has a nanny to watch his kids.