I've been reading this for a while, and have run across both sides of this argument in the past. I have always thought the game needs to be called the same - if it's a foul in the last minute, it should be a foul in the first minute. If it's a block under one basket, the similar play should be a block under the other basket.
However...
We use advantage/disadvantage all the time. Contact in a BV game that is easy to let go would definitely be a foul in a 5th grade G game. Should we call the same contact a foul no matter what level, or should there be some allowance for a particular game situation? Likewise, could advantage/disadvantage also apply in this instance? TerpZebra's example of giving a foul to the second player rather than the star is, in my mind, a good example. He didn't say it was obvious who the foul was on, but he was aware of the star's 4th, and called the foul on the other player to keep, in his mind, that team from being put at an (unfair?) disadvantage. His knowledge of the foul count allowed a game to continue a little more fairly. Also, his example of his partner fouling out the player on a hand check sounds like his partner was looking for something after his comment, but we don't know if there had been hand-check fouls called earlier. If so, and it was called the same throughout the game, then the player legitimately fouled out. But, if this was a marginal call, it can make a game situation worse from a coach management standpoint. "Make sure it's obvious" shouldn't be "code" for calling it different for certain players, just a reminder to ourselves to make sure there's no doubt it was a foul. And, yes, that should apply to the first minute as well as the last. Sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves of that.