The point in your first paragraph is even more true and prevalent in basketball.
In fact, you never saw athletic looking, shredded, muscular NBA players prior to the modern era. It became a trend to start lifting weights started by the NFL or college football. Even Baseball followed the trend. Look at Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds when they started.
Look at Magic, Bird, Isaiah, and even Jordan in his youth. They were stick figures. Maybe the trend has not happened to the NHL yet.
Ice hockey is played on a larger surface than Basketball. They have to chase a puck traveling faster and longer, because the boards keep it inside, than a basketball player does with his ball because he has out of bounds margins and can simply hold onto the ball to keep it in his possession. When hockey players try to score they must try and use ever increasing force. When a basketball players shoot at their own goal (basket), they have to use touch, and precision not force. Hockey players can knock another player off the puck. A basketball player cannot touch the guy with the ball.
How can basketball be a more athletic game and less about skill than Hockey? Anyone who thinks hockey is more about skill, and basketball more about athleticism has very little exposure to sports.