If you look at the history of Shotokan, and place it into it's historical context it became a method of teaching young kids how to be good soldiers. The family individualized training that marked Okinawan training was now replaced with rank structure, obedience to authority without question, and uniformity. Since Judo was on the rise and was very popular, Funakoshi needed a way to make karate just as marketable. This started with the early sport karate, the change from "Chinese hand" to "Empty hand" and the renaming of katas to more japanese sounding names.
Kicks became higher since you couldn't kick the knee/groin anymore and techniques that couldn't be used in competition were ignored. Kata was not studied in depth to find it's lesson. It was just material for testing and tradition. Time was spent on kihon and kumite. Look at the number of styles that came from Shotokan that evolved just from the tournament fighting. Kyokushin, Seidokan, Ashihara etc.
"Hard won, buy easy lost. True karate does not stay where it is not being used."