I agree it should be a foul, and it usually is anymore, but you have to consider the difference in a tournament match and a gambling match. There are considerably more gambling matches going on than tournament play, even though the recent popularity of one pocket tournaments is growing.
If we are gambling, and I really want to play you, and you insist that object balls off the table are not a foul, guess what, no foul.
The main thing IMO is to get down and play. A couple differences of opinion on some of the rules will not keep me on the bench.
Hey John, You've got that right! I was lost out in the boonies of Penn. and happened on a ratty old pool room. I stepped in of course and there is this guy banging balls on one of the tables. So I ask this guy if he wants to play some pool for ten or twenty a game. He agreed and wanted to play eight ball. Of course, eight ball. The game where the rules change from place to place as quickly as billboards on a highway. We settle on all the standard rules that I can think of that might have an impact on the game, call all shots, scratch on the eight you loose, stuff like that.
We start to play but it takes only two or three shots for the shit to hit the fan. I call a ball in the corner pocket and it slides along the side rail and falls in. He jumps up and says "You didn't call that." What he means is I didn't call the shot touching the side rail as it approached the pocket. What would you do? I said, "Okay, no problem."
That wasn't the end of this nuts rules. He also claimed you had to call balls going in off the pocket facings! "No problem"
He went for nine games after I put down the two hour ultra stall.
The more rules in place the better it is for the better player. The tighter the pockets the better it is for the better player. The better player will win regardless of the obstacles as long as those obstacles are the same for both players.
Restrictive rules hamper the weaker player far more than they do the stronger player. Better players adapt better and quicker.
Tom