CONGU, WHS and Rule E5

I find that decision absolutely bizarre and it shows how out of sorts people who run golf are.

So is a scratch golfer hits it into the trees they just immediately reach into their golf bag pull another ball and hit? Absolute tosh. They wait till they're focused again, they clean the club face, decide if they are going to stick with the same club or play safer, they go through their whole pre shot routine again, and then hit. I can guarantee that they will also go and look for the first ball to see if they can find it/play it - so how is that quicker?