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I am not allowed ot discuss anything I saw while working for the Yankees until one year after my date of termination in specifics...and I don't think I can talk about specific methods in enough detail to replicate them ever. But I can say that they had ways of looking at all of the available hit f/x data using the relationships between those variables and each other and between those variables and runs created resulting from each batted ball in the aggregate. Meaning they looked at launch angles, velocities, spin rate, launch azimuths...not to mention things like time to first base. So yes...they have moved beyond BABIP...well beyond.
I don't actually know how the vertical launch angles break down in terms of run values, but my guess is that the optimal angles are exactly what you've found for distance generation and that if you go higher, it's easy to get under the ball and field it.