I feel like you're not reading the responses. The only reason the ball isn't in play is because the defender, in breaching the laws, stopped it. Had he not done that the ball would have entered play.
Of course I'm reading the responses. I simply don't agree that this is an "offence". It's simply a procedure infringement, and like any other wrongly taken restart, the caution for delaying the restart should only be applied if it obviously delays the restart. I don't buy that this should be treated differently just because an attacker could have played the ball if the defending team had chosen to allow the ball to go into play. To me, this is no different to taking a free kick from the wrong spot, forcing a retake.
that's just a blatant strawman. You know very well that's not what the issue is here because I've made it very clear, on a number of occasions, what my reasoning is here. So I'm not going to dignify that with a response - only to point out that such a response makes me wonder if you're opposed to all cautions for DTROP, given that excuse would apply there.
It's not a strawman at all. You've implied that delaying the restart of play should be treated differently when the defending team does it from a goal kick. If this is not your position, you should clarify it. If it is your position, I disagree entirely. I caution for delaying the restart of play any time it causes a significant delay in the restart of play, or for continued tardiness after a warning. I don't believe that rolling the ball all of ten metres back into the goal area for a do-over is a significant delay unless the team has been warned already about this or other delaying activities.