We should stop relying on the Shrine Numbers, but many still do. Either to sound more impressive, or they do not realize that the Shrine makes up most of those numbers.
As far as fixing the Craft Lodges. I agree. But again, many Brothers are against change. Not sure how your Lodge is, but ours still has a lot of the "old guard" who seem to attend only to get away from the house. Heck, it took a few years to get even a small "Christmas party" out my Lodge. I even volunteered to get 4 or 5 pre-made turkey meals from Publix so the Lodge did not have to put up any money, and that was still turned down. The only reason I was able to do some Christmas Cards for Widows this year, was because I did all the work and bought everything out of pocket. Then it was like pulling teeth with some people to get them to sign the cards. Some even just avoided me.
Yeah, we are fighting for a change, but it is a long road. A lot of the infighting in our Lodge has turned a lot of Brothers away too. Hopefully one day we can do what we are supposed to do, but for some, they coasted for so long doing the bare minimum, they are against anything else.
Our Lodge is fortunate that we usually have two or three degrees a month going on. We have a steady stream of people coming through. Yet we still have the same 15-20 people at the stated meetings though. Many are not finding what they are looking for at the Blue Lodge level, are seeing trying to get the charity work that the Shrine does, the beautiful degree work that the SR does, and the teaching that I understand the YR does. They did not join to fight for those things, but to do them. So they seem to leave for what organization does what they are looking for.
Now this is all based on my personal experiences, from my Lodge and talking to Brothers. Other people may feel different. But it easier to say what we should be doing, then to find people who are willing to fight for the change to do it.