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Well your second scenario would open up the game to a lot of unnecessary fouls. If the defense knew that by committing the facemask far down field that is would have to be declined then they would be taking cheap shots like that all the time while the ball was still live. A defensive back catches a runner 40 yards down field and takes his head off there is no "penalty" there because A has to decline the penalty just to keep all of the yardage.
As for your first scenario, A did do something very wrong in the play to have the ball so far behind the neutral zone. So to let them mark off a penalty from the previous spot can be argued that it isn't fair to the defense to do that, kind of a get-out-of-jail-free card. The offense does get to replay the down. The penalty did cut A's losses. NCAA avoids this because all personal fouls also get an automatic first down.
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