After his career, Sandor Puhl (the Hungarian ref at the 1994 WC final and the 1997 CL final) was a TV pundit. He always used the expression: "if the hand 'searched for' the ball, it's a handball, if the ball 'searched for' the hand, it's not" . I don't know if that was a better rule (or rule of thumb), but certainly lot more clearer for the fans than the current ones. Too complicated rules lead into inconsistency or at least the the appearance of inconsistency.
@JamesL is spot on here. Arm is out from his body but also in a natural position. Was where you'd expect it to be based on his body movement.
This makes a lot of sense--the whole evolution of "unnatural position" was about actions that were well disguised deliberate actions. Where there is no likelihood of a ball going somewhere, that logic really doesn't apply--and is really a clue that the arm position actually was the natural position for what the player was doing, as it wasn't there for nefarious reasons. (I still think IFAB made a serious mistake by making unnatural position a separate consideration rather than a kind of deliberate action in how they wrote it up, as it encourages things getting detached from the core of the concept of why it is there.)
I believe if that happened in front of the goal, would have been a pk. Not sure if considered DOGSO; very tricky situation.
I have been involved with officiating for 45 years and the offside rule has ALWAYS been a morass of inconsistency. Even when it simply said: to be handball it must be deliberate. What could be simpler or clearer? Yet every single ref, player or spectator had their own idea what "deliberate" meant, and there were constant arguments. IFAB have tried very hard to find a wording that everyone agrees with, and to give the consistency you demand. But everyone has their own idea of what the Law SHOULD BE and is therefore unhappy to accept it for what it is.
