I agree. If you really hit them where (i.e. going back to when) it hurt them the most, you'd go back to the bus they came in on, deeming that they never arrived, and they'd forfeit the game.

But seriously folks, all-but-one (or as it used to be called, three-and-one) is a reasonable compromise (one of several possible) between ease of administration and equity. When the defense fouls during a run, it's usually a safety-affecting thing, but when it affects the game tactically, it'd be difficult to impossible to figure out how they hurt the offense yardage wise, so the entirety of the associated run counts. When the offense fouls during a run, it's more often tactical in some way, and the enforcement approximates the idea that the player who was fouled against might've made the tackle right there. But sometimes the spot of a foul doesn't have that relationship to the associated run, and enforcing from that spot, if behind where the run ended, is pretty arbitrary.

The Canadian PBH (point ball held -- at the moment of the foul) spot I think does better w.r.t. the equities, but is harder to administer because it may not be in the official's view at that instant.

Some enforcement spots are very much divorced from the effect a foul might've had on play. There've been 2 philosophies regarding how to penalize non-deliberate pass interference by the defense: use the spot where the interference occurred, or the previous spot. Neither is much of a remedy in a case where a high lobbed pass is accompanied by interference far short of where the ball came down, and where the receiver might otherwise have been able to run to catch it. But only rugby uses the spot where the ball lands as an enforcement point for an equivalent type of interference (on a kick).

Robert

They've been diverging more & more over the decades. They all still use 3&1 to at least some extent. Before about 1970, very close.

Some enforcements have gone back & forth since penalties for them were established. NCAA's defensive pass interference was SOF, then previous spot, then SOF again, then previous spot again. Options for free kicks out of bounds have been a favorite for changing repeatedly.

NCAA was the last to eliminate loss of ball penalties, the last going in 1970 give or take a year.

Robert