that's a charitable interpretation. players hate four pre-season games, let alone five. they have to get on a plane for Cali then another one for Ohio two weeks later? pass. you can get more done in practice than you can in an exhibition game where the starters are pulled after one series.
I guess it depends on the quality of practices, but since they cant do much contact or live hitting anymore I'm not sure anyone gets much out of "practices"
We're going to have a lot of new players and are installing new systems on both sides of the ball, plus the special teams is going to have to be re-made. Live game action and seeing how things go against another team is probably seen as a benefit.
I don't necessarily disagree with you that players hate preseason, but I think owners and coaches hate it more due to the potential injury factor. Many seem satisfied with using September as a real preseason now.