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Why does it matter? If the ball is lost… it's lost.

#1. A flawless swing should yield flawless results.

I think this is now the norm for weeknight leagues.  I hate it too.  Makes no sense to me. Every time I challenge the folks running the league I'm given the same answer "We do it to speed up play." ... HUH? "There's a modified local rule for that!" I scream into the abyss.  Are the people in the league so bad at math that it actually takes them longer to add two strokes to their score than it takes them to add one stroke to their score!????  I don't get it. 

I have to wonder what “in the rough” means. Is the grass adjacent to the fairway so long one can’t find a ball? Or does ‘in the rough” mean everywhere except OB and penalty areas? I played in a league decades ago. The league played any lost or OB ball as a lateral hazard. I hated the “rule” since it provided a large advantage to players who hit errant shots. I became very good at watching and finding my opponent’s shots. “Here it is Bob, right behind this tree, in the raspberry bush.” I gave up league play in large part to the lack of following the Rules of Golf.   

That have a modified local rule which can be put into affect for this very reason.  This rule was invented to solve this problem:  https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/golfs-new-rules-stroke-and-distance.html