I sacrificed my shotblock for other stats but it's my understanding the stat only related to the dedicated shotblock (L1) button. It should affect the type of block used and how fast you get back up when hit. I currently find defensive awareness (mine is at least in the high 80's, possibly low 90's) to carry more weight in these situations.
If this increased my actual hitbox I would completely change how my build was made. New animations like squeezing the legs and angling my skates out would lean more towards awareness but I can see the dedicated shotblock stat taking from it slightly.
I don't think there is anything intentional about it but some games just feel stranger than others. You can play the same team twice in a row and they can be wildy different. I don't believe rank has anything to do with it, however, as, to me, rank is more indicative of playtime than skill (to a degree).
The biggest issue people bring up is the goalies - your bread and butter just has 0 effect for long stretches at a time and they become light out despite "perfect setup" scenarios. In a real world sense that is just random chance, but in a video game with atraight 1's and 0's you're left scratching your head. Again, I don't believe a tilt mechanic exists but its the shifting set of RNG, as if its in a string of blocks, just not aligning correctly for two different teams at once.
I don't necessarily mind being told not to trust the AI for anything, its just they actually can go from showing moments of true brilliance to outright sabotaging your team seemingly on purpose. I'd just like their awareness to get a boost.
In a perfect world 3's AI would apply dedicated 3v3 logic - In their current form it leads to heavy exploitation which hurts creativity in user builds (we have to create jack of all trades builds insteas of dedicated ones you'd find in 6's).
We all know the meta would be creating stay at home dedicated Defensive D goon builds so that won't work but I'd love to be able to create my own unique plays they can follow in the next engine update.