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This particular rule has been a rule for as long as I can remember. So I don't understand how this one rule, enforced at best a couple of times per game, is having a negative impact on scoring. What has had a negative impact is the shift toward faster players who can cover more court quickly. The move toward faster players was precipitated primarily by the creation of 3 point line, which in turn had intended to make the game more exciting by opening it up a bit. Watch some of the Big Monday games from the mid 80s for examples of my-post-player-is-bigger-and-stronger-than-your-post-player basketball that prevailed before the line came into being to see why they created the line.
But creation of the line meant that teams needed players that could cover that area better than before - hence the quicker player phenomenon. Now you have incredibly quick and talented defensive players, a very fast paced game, and I would argue that it is a more exciting game now than 15 years ago. Scoring might be slightly higher if the best players stayed the full four years, and fan interest might also increase.
But overall, I think that there is so much that has changed that you can't pin declining gates on one factor. I think that the saturation of sports programming has had a negative impact on gates, as well as on the viewership of any individual game that is televised. But I have no more data to back that conclusion than you have to blame it on changes in rule interpretations that favor the defense.
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