Stitches on the ball: why?

A couple of days ago on MLB Network they interviewed a scientist, a Dr. Lawrence Rocks, and a baseball player, Paul DeJong.

Cardinals’ DeJong Joins Renowned Scientist To Test Effect Of Heat On Baseball report by Steve Overmyer newyork.cbslocal.com November 9, 2017 at 6:31 pm

Don't know if Rocks is a rocket scientist. He said something that stuck out: how does the ball react when hit on the stitches?

I had never thought of that. Does the ball go farther? Does it move more radically? We had been assured in a previous interview with league official and Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre that the (obviously juiced) balls made in recent seasons have been hand sewn the same way.

Hand sewn. How quaint. And what a ridiculous way to ensure quality control and consistency. But then I wondered further: in 2017 why are stitches needed to create a ball? Wasn't that the reason that stitches were used originally, to sew cow hide as the cover? Can't some modern method be used in which there are no stitches?

The reaction of 99% of baseball fans would be: well, how can the pitcher throw all those different pitches without stitches? Duh. Who gives a rat's ass if the pitcher can throw Bugs Bunny pitches? Just lay it over the plate and let the batters put the ball in play. That's what baseball is all about.

I thought of one concession: one short stitch for a grip, analogous to the stitch on a football. The thrower can touch the stitch and become comfortable in releasing a ... well it wouldn't be a four seam fastball. Whatever. The throwers can figure that out. Maybe with no or one stitch, the batters can finally achieve balance: .500 batting average. We can only hope.