I completely agree. This is an opportunity to get this generation interested in pinball without destroying the game itself. Why not have networked video modes to play against some one else as a feature, it might get them hooked on the game itself, then play some more and get a little better each time. Then they see an older machine somewhere and think "I know how to play this" and have a half decent game. It can build from there, Its kind of how I got started at 8 yo on Supersonic, even with the intro of video games at the time, I was hell bent in pinball.
Not sure about the rest of the world but down here in Oz (Australia) pinball is very much on life support. Very difficult to find in the wild- even the arcades are full of crap games issuing tickets for plastic junk. New machines are ridiculously expensive to play let alone buy and they have to evolve or be left to cater to collectors only.

No one on this topic has mentioned the first thing I thought of when I saw WOZ... AWESOME ADVERTISING SPACE!!! When its not in use it can be used to sell, and the owner or venue can then charge for the space, making another form of income from one machine. I know its killing the art, and I probably sound like a sell out, but if it means I can walk into a bar and pick which machine to play, I think its worth the sacrifice.
As far as I can tell the biggest problem is finding a way to get machines back out into the public space, this is just a way of achieving it in this totally exploited, commercial world of ours.
I am now getting off my soapbox....

Why not both? As long as there is a ball getting hit by button controlled flippers, why put any restrictions on it?

Nobody likes it... except for marketing scum (cue Bill Hicks) But like you said, it is an inescapable part of the world we live in. At least we could use it to our advantage somewhat.