The short drop out is a lottery. I don't understand why you'd take a 50/50 chance to get it back over defending your line from 40-50m out. Back your defence and not leave so much to chance.
That being said, I'd like to see a slight rule change where if the ball is grounded by the defending team, it is a drop out from the 10m line. If the defender plays the ball over the dead ball line, it's a drop out as normal.
I feel that teams that defuse attacks successfully but the ball was 'In play' should be given a bit more reward for defending the play but if they deliberately send it dead, then it's the less preferred option and costs them yardage.
I was drunk when I thought this up.