Sub or Extended Bench?

[SwansWay]

Disparity will occur even with the sub rule. Sure if you both have 5 on the bench and one goes down, it’s 4 vs. 5. However the same could be said if you are forced to make your sub early as in today’s game. It’s still one down with North able to bring on fresher legs late in the game. So to me it isn’t any different although it seems like it is at a cursory look.

As for the idea that you can ease in older players with the sub rule. If you had an extended bench, couldn’t you just give that player less game time? Wouldn’t that be identical to making them a sub but with less restrictions?