Nothing lasts forever. In time, the continents will crash into each other once more, the sun will swallow the planet and, at some point long after that, The Simpsons will end. But that isn’t to say that it’s incapable of moving with the times before then. Because, in yet another nod to shifting tastes, Homer Simpson has revealed that he will no longer attempt to strangle his son to death.
In the third episode of the current 35th season, Homer greets his new neighbour by shaking his hand. When the neighbour comments that he wasn’t expecting such a firm grip, Homer replies: “See Marge, strangling the boy paid off,” before acknowledging that he doesn’t actually do that any more. “Times have changed,” he adds.
While I agree with you and also agree with the decision to not show it anymore, I do want to highlight this bit that you wrote:
The positive thing is that it never (or so raraly that I wouldn’t remember) presented the strangling as anything good or helpful. Instead it was always presented as a shortcoming of his personality. Homer is mentally ill equipped to solve conflicts with Bart non-violently. Strangling him was his only outlet and (at least to attentive viewers) it was clearly and evidently damaging Bart’s development. This is for example demonstrated in a scene where Bart has such a trauma that he’s getting “strangled” by thin air when he thinks his dad would go for it.
Also, with the knowledge that Bart is, to some extent, Matt Groening’s self-insert, that does raise some rather unpleasant questions.