I do agree with you, but only partially. The same section also says:
Examples of beneficial malfunctions would include a jackpot switch that registers when a different target is hit, a valuable switch that scores once without the ball contacting it. See also “Stuck Balls”, below.
This strongly suggests that what Robert experienced is not a beneficial malfunction. Absolutely nothing misbehaved. At every moment, the game worked exactly as intended, no software bugs, no mechanical failure, no switch malfunction, nothing of the kind whatsoever.
What happened here is not a beneficial malfunction. What happened is a lazarus at just the right moment. No more, no less. And we have a rule that says that a lazarus is normal gameplay, and another rule that says that one beneficial malfunction is acceptable per game. Now, I can argue that the beneficial malfunction rule doesn’t apply because everything worked as intended. But, in that case, the only possibly applicable rule remaining is the lazarus one, which clearly says “play on”.
Please forgive me for sounding argumentative. I am not disputing that Robert should have dropped the extra ball “in the spirit of competition”. I do agree: it’s right and proper in the spirit of competition that he should drop the extra ball. But, so far, I still have not seen anything in the rules that actually makes this clear.
So, I’m arguing about the clarity of the rules, not about what the rules should state. (I actually don’t care what they state because, ultimately, it’s arbitrary.) But I do care if the rules don’t state clearly what should happen in this situation because, in the end, all a TD has to go by are the rules.
And I still maintain that, given the rules as they stand, Robert should have been allowed to keep his ball.
What all this suggests is that the rules need fixing because they don’t deal with this particular situation adequately. Just re-watch the video. The spontaneous exclamation was “That’s a play on. Oh, actually, I’m not sure.”
It’s not good to have rules that are open to (mis)interpretation. If the commentators, who are experts, are not sure, how is the average Joe Bloe TD to know?