a lower scale is a huge difference! it's very similar to increasing inaccuracy.
you can focus on all sorts of things while winning to stay interested... e.g. i deviate from my normal behaviour when i retain a player that can set career records into their 30's with no intention to trade... i may lose a game or two more near the end, but oh well when it's deducted from ~140 wins
as far as winning, you can always win more! lol... with draft pick trading on a few years ago i think i got to 156 or 157wins with mostly perfect health. i didn't even maximize that abuse (e.g. i did not take advantage of sign and trades)... you already got at least one good method of player procurement, now start adding more methods or more sophisticated wrinkles to how you do it now etc etc... (plus, anything learned doing this translates to other leagues, if not abuse or rules related etc etc)
even after turning draft pick trading off i looked into ways to abuse international FA amatuers, lol. did i say abuse? i meant maximize!.. had i done that togeterh with draft pick trading i'm prretty sure a perfect 162-0 is possible.
i haven't played enough of 18 to know if the new $5M cap on international ama. FA will drop the win total a ton... i'm guessing ~10wins less or so, becaue it's not just the ones on my MLB team, but all the assets i get in return for those players, too. 130/140s win seasons can become 110s/120s seasons very easily. more expensive FA wil lbe used which means greater exposure to risk from aging etc plus the increased cost = less quality players in total on team.
even on the toughest settings you should find a way to make the playoffs ~nearly every year... can't control things like injuries though or random talent changes (be hard on yourself, but not irrational)... bound to miss some. avoid age, don't overpay.. take 1 bad year to save the following 3, etc etc... if it's a net negative over time i simply don't do it and take my lumps. a real life example of what not to do: Detroit Tigers 2006-2017, lol.... (blame illitch, not dombrowski, although the latter is part of why they are so late at adding an analytics department)
try new things if not consistently a good playoff contender. biggst key there is recognizing ratings that are like "overall" -- not very specific in their description -- Stuff, contact are like this, but not as extreme as overall.
even movement is tied to pitch types? i forget what the verbage is in edito with comish mode on. basically if it is calculated using multiple other ratings, it's means that not all "80's" are equivalent... multiple inputs result in teh same result.. that should tell you something about it's usefulness.