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The NFL has decided years ago they want more passing and more "excitement".

I stopped watching the NFL the day that the Browns named Johnny Football the starter. 

I haven't looked back. No regrets. 

think it has a lot to do with spread offenses in college and with high school teams not preparing it's linemen for college. A lot of high schools run option or spread option and rarely ever pass the ball.

OL recruiting for college and drafting OL in the NFL is the biggest crap-shoot it's ever been. It's almost a complete crap-shoot really. That's why I really don't pay much attention to OL recruiting or fret too much about it. It doesn't matter. The OL coaching and player development and S&C program matter far more.

I'm not sure where you're watching/following HS football,   I've observed that passing has proliferated like wild fire in the twenty ish years since I played HS football.   Perhaps I see it more, since I've moved closer to the south.  I rarely see the power I anymore and almost never see the Wing-T.   That was easily 75%+ of the offensive sets when I was in HS in the mid 90s in the state of WI.
I fully support your other points.   Scouts routinely discount run blocking when rating players (because nobody runs in the pros) and thus, the run blocking stinks on Sunday.

I've been shocked by how defenses have been so predominant in the early weeks of this NFL season. For a league which wants passing touchdowns and excitement, it seems like they're getting sacks and interceptions instead. Well, I guess if you call pick-sixes passing touchdowns, it counts, right?

I think it's been more bad offense than good defense.

I think each new offensive innovation has a wave.  You get a few guys doing it, and it's sparse but successful.  Leads to more people doing it, and frequently at a low execution level, but it still works because defenses haven't caught up.  Once defenses do, you have this.  I think you've seen some very vanilla offense in the NFL, due to lack of practice, and player movement, and the fact that running a lot of this HUNH with west coast principles was working.  Brady and Manning are not doing anything mind blowing.  Just a bunch of quick slant, and heavy uses of rubs and pick plays.  Led to a lot of the league doing the same thing.  But defenses always start to figure it out.  That's where we are now.  A lot of vanilla offense against defenses that have seen it enough that you can't get away with running it at a low level.

Just look at how yards per completion keeps dropping.

You could be a spokesman for UW.

UW is a great example of it. They just keep churnin' 'em out. Not like they are signing 5* OL's every class either.
Michigan went through a stretch with Hoke when they were signing SO many 5* and 4* OL's and virtually none of them panned out. LTT got kicked off the team, Bosch went mental and transferred, David Dawson couldn't crack the two-deep, Kalis looked like a 5* but played like a 3* - the best OL they had was Glasgow- a walk-on.
I think things will start to change for the Michigan OL going forward- but it won't be because of any STARZ they sign. It'll be because they have a head coach in Harbaugh who develops players- and they basically two OL coaches- both of whom have good reps for developing OL's in Drevno and Frey.

Two years ago Penn State's OL was abysmal.  Now Coach Franklin claims they're the best in the Big Ten and he may be right.  Same kids I think.

There has been some addition by subtraction, noteably the Predator, Paris Palmer