I don't think I've ever seen a batter that just pushes their shoulder down. But, the shoulder coming down "naturally" IS a drop. I think the point here is that they shouldn't be told, "Keep your shoulders level."
I see a BIG problem with this. Swinging down to the ball from the shoulder is quite a different angle than what the path of the pitch is. That's quite a feat to be able to make such an abrupt change in the angle in time for contact to be through the ball in the right direction. The best hitters out there come into the path of the pitch from behind the ball with barrel turning.
Hmmmm. Kinda depends on what exactly you mean by barrel dropping. Given where the barrel starts, there's got to be a lot of barrel dropping for the barrel to come into the point of contact from behind the ball rather than the ole chopping down at the ball straight from the shoulder, which results in a lot of chipping of the ball.
I could be wrong, but it sure doesn't seem you're much of a believer in what most of the real hitting experts around here are telling us to be doing in terms of hitting mechanics.
They should not be trying to let the shoulder come down. If they do it will collapse. It will come down naturally and then it is not a drop or collapse. It wants to come down, you just resist it until the lower body wins.
So, are you saying the barrel doesn't go down to the ball? The swing thought is to take the barrel down to the ball. This will keep it loaded longer and allow the barrel to be released through the ball versus losing the barrel under the ball which 99% of youth hitters do.
The hands stay even with the rear shoulder in space. At contact the hands should not be below the shoulder line. What I mean, if you were to freeze contact and the stand straight up the hands would be close to shoulder height. There are exceptions. Your top hand is fighting to keep the barrel above the hands but as the hands turn over the barrel will naturally come down. You then release/throw the barrel down to the ball. Because you are not dropping your hands the barrel as it continues through will be on a slight upward angle.
I can tell you what a swing looks like. Yes, you do want a slight upward angle, yes the back shoulder does come down from it's starting point. I get all of that. Why do most if not all youth hitters miss below the ball when they miss? You have to learn to resist the natural to get the proper. If you do not you will over do the barrel drop, the shoulder coming down, the upward swing path. The fighting adds resistance which allows for a greater release.