This is giving me flashbacks to the 2021 F1 final race in Abu Dhabi when the race director decided to do what he felt was right for the spectacle rather than follow the rule book.
In both instances, one team is happy with the outcome and the other isn't. In both instances, I feel for the the team that lost because the rule book was thrown out the window
I don't know much about F1 or the precise details of what happened, but on the face of it that's a interesting comparison to make.
According to Wikipedia the FIA said that the race director misapplied the rules due to human error?
For the RWC .. We don't have an WR enquiry to rely on.
My guess is that TF relied on the integrity clause to override the phase count . If he did do that, and was wrong to do so, then that would be similar to the F1 incident
Your guess is that he simply forgot all about the phase count, which would be a different type of error ( and arguably a much worse one)