I played soccer(football)for a couple of years and I was never in a position to be "offside", it was too far up the field!
All I can compare it to is when they took the center line out of hockey, eliminating the "two line pass". As a referee, I thought it was the dumbest thing they'd ever done. There I am, standing at the net(ready to call a goal)and a pass is made to a player 2/3rds of the way up the ice at the far blueline. Talk about having to skate your guts out! Now that the linesmen have been instructed to follow the play right to the net(if need be)it's made hockey a better and faster game. We can thank girls hockey for this one! They did it first!