I think there are a couple of things we are not giving the right attention

1) Rules does not penalize always the same driver, they penalize the first crew in the general ranking.

2) Rules does not penalize always the crew who open the road. As said before Monte, Germany, Corsica, Galles, Sweden with few snow and every gravel rally with rain are an advantage for that crew. It means that in almost 5 events out of 13 there is not a penalization. It is 40% of the whole championship, it's not exceptional.
The difference is that at these events nobody at the end of the road order is crying the hell out of him at the end of the stages.

3) As we all said Sweden was exceptional, in normal condition on gravel rallies the leading driver will sufer from road order mainly in the first 3 stages of the first leg. Friday afternoon is quite better and on saturday the situation is much more balanced. In 2014, Ogier was capable to win a lot of events with these rules, even Sardinia.