The acts aren't THAT different. Last night, in a varsity "game", I called an illegally kicking foul. The punter muffed the snap and, due to the rush, just went ahead and kicked the ball off the ground. Let's say that, for some odd reason, he took off, crossed the NZ, (intentionally) dropped the ball and kicked it then. What would you have? And why (logically, not current rules based) would you have something different than him punting?
Look, I'm not saying the current rule makes no sense. Just saying to simplify things let's call it one thing and then specify when the ball becomes dead and enforcement procedures. We have a myriad of illegal forward pass fouls and enforcements (intentional grounding, pass beyond the line, etc.). Then we have illegal touching -- by ineligible receiver and an eligible receiver, and both are enforced differently. Plus, there are interps about how to handle what might be a straight up illegal touching that should be called illegal forward pass, especially from the end zone. My point here is that there is plenty of support to call something one thing and to handle it differently.
