Cruising also happens because there just aren't enough kilometres on a Sunday AM. Usually this day is wasted and drivers go to bed on Saturday knowing where they will finish. More KM could encourage more racing but it could cement positions with growing gaps. It's also costly and with the trend being shorter rallies I would shorten Friday and lengthen Sunday thus moving the racing KMs and attack strategy.

Typical itinerary could be:
Friday AM: Shakedown/Quali
Friday PM, the initial charge: (20%) Perhaps a Power Stage as SS1 as a statement of intent, or one for the early evening TV in summer
Saturday, the battles appear: (40%) 2 loops
Sunday, settle or gamble: (40%) 2 loops

Either shift the existing PS to a later time or make the final TC and Media Zone a Sunday afternoon/evening 'live TV show' if it's required with the interviews and podium then and using the best highlights as action. I absolutely detest this notion that the championship revolves around a TV hour at Sunday lunchtime. Real fans can watch any stage live if they wish. Casual viewers wouldn't know if it was actually live or a repeat of 3 days ago. The idea that people are all sat at home on a Sunday watching the one TV in the house as a happy family and there's no internet, and once we've seen them on the podium IMMEDIATELY and stood to the anthem - we don't need to hear from, talk about, think about, read the news about WRC until the next event's power stage. Get ******* real. We've all got 3 screens, working all sorts of shifts and we're spread across timezones.

I'll also say points per stage will just create silly 50 stage itineraries to suit the local driver. Points per leg is much better.

There's nothing wrong with restarting but the penalty should be minutes/KM lost not 10m per stage. Nominal times are worked on /km basis so shouldn't be an issue.