I also think American Football (and baseball) does a good job of having quantifiable action outside of scoring plays. Every play has a clear result, often with

I also think American Football (and baseball) does a good job of having quantifiable action outside of scoring plays. Every play has a clear result, often with obvious valence. So even though it doesn't count directly towards the final score, you can build up tension and excitement for example just on 3rd down conversion attempts. An experienced viewer might be able to pick out this sort of mini battle during other sports, and there are also more nuanced battles in football that a random viewer may not pick up on. But for somebody casual, or even just listening on the radio or checking for updates on an app, there is a lot more "result" happening on a football field. Plus the pauses help, when somebody gets the better of their opponent in a traditional goal-based sport you usually know mere moments later whether it had an impact on the game. A 3rd down conversion on the other hand can have minutes of game time (let alone real time) before one knows whether it led to a score. And even if it didn't, there is at least a clear impact on time of possession. So I think perception of too little vs too much scoring can be helped by this dynamic, where real scores still feel very impactful but there are "fake" scores one can also root for on a shorter timescale.