I think you're missing the point. If it goes back to Lloris, we still have possession and the chance to attack. If we don't have the ball, we have to win it back, which is not guaranteed.
How many times have we been pick-pocketed? The number is actually quite few. Lloris isn't great with distribution, but is noticeably worse when trying to play it long. Passing to a CB to play it out of the back again is much less risky than lumping it forward.
The 97% of our goals coming from inside the box matters because it's a reminder that the long shots are not going in. But we take a lot of them. 50% of our shots are coming from range. That's the highest % among the good teams. Yet they're not going in. Maybe, since this ranged shooting isn't getting goals, we should take the hint and pass into the box more, since all our goals are happening there?
I don't care if its the AMs instead of the strikers shooting from inside the box, I care where we shoot from. But, it is our AMs going the bulk of the long range shooting. So...
Or rather than passing backward to retain possession, why not try taking the player on, attempting difficult through balls, getting in the penalty area if we can. Some of the time we'll lose the ball doing that, but we're good enough to get it back and we defend well. I'd have thought the risk is worth taking for the benefit of making it past that last defender 1 in 4 times or whatever and then being in a true goal scoring opportunity.