macOS Applescript: Read EXIF data and change "created date"

-- script will ask for folder
set files_in_folder to 0
set image_files_in_folder to 0
set images_changed to 0
set images_skipped to {}
log "01"
try
    set progress description to "Processing Images..."
    set progress additional description to "Preparing to process."
    set progress completed steps to images_changed
    -- get files
    set this_folder to (choose folder with prompt "Pick the folder containing the images to process:") as string
    tell application "System Events"
        with timeout of 600 seconds
            set these_files to every file of folder this_folder whose name does not start with "."
            set files_in_folder to count of these_files
            set these_files to every file of folder this_folder whose name does not start with "." and (name extension is "jpeg" or name extension is "JPEG" or name extension is "jpg" or name extension is "JPG")
            set image_files_in_folder to count of these_files
        end timeout
    end tell
    
    -- Update the initial progress information
    set progress additional description to "Begin process"
    set progress total steps to (count of these_files)
    
    
    repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_files
        log "0x"
        set this_file to (item i of these_files as alias)
        set this_file_name to (name of (info for this_file))
        set progress additional description to "Processing file " & this_file_name
        set filePathAS to this_file as string
        set filePathSH to quoted form of the POSIX path of filePathAS
        set dateTimeOriginal to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/exiftool -d '%Y%m%d%H%M.%S' -DateTimeOriginal " & filePathSH
        if (dateTimeOriginal is "") then
            set images_skipped to images_skipped & (this_file_name & ", ")
        else
            set dateTimeOriginal to ((characters 35 through -1 of dateTimeOriginal) as string)
            do shell script "touch -t " & dateTimeOriginal & " " & filePathSH
            set images_changed to (images_changed + 1)
            set progress completed steps to images_changed
        end if
    end repeat
    display alert "Task completed! " & return & "Folder has " & files_in_folder & " files, of which " & image_files_in_folder & " image files. " & return & "Images processed: " & images_changed & return & "Images skipped: " & (count of images_skipped) & return & return & images_skipped
on error the error_message number the error_number
    display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message & "(No images changed: " & (count of images_changed) buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try

-- Reset the progress information
set progress total steps to 0
set progress completed steps to 0
set progress description to ""
set progress additional description to ""



--function is never used:

on replaceText(someText, oldItem, newItem)
    (*
     replace all occurances of oldItem with newItem
          parameters -     someText [text]: the text containing the item(s) to change
                    oldItem [text, list of text]: the item to be replaced
                    newItem [text]: the item to replace with
          returns [text]:     the text with the item(s) replaced
     *)
    set {tempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, oldItem}
    try
        set {itemList, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {text items of someText, newItem}
        set {someText, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {itemList as text, tempTID}
    on error errorMessage number errorNumber -- oops
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tempTID
        error errorMessage number errorNumber -- pass it on
    end try
    
    return someText
end replaceText