Of course it makes sense and absolutely should not be changed. It is actually a holdover from rugby where you can only kick forward and if you touch the ball forwards it's an automatic turnover anywhere on the field. Teams sometimes try to kick into the end zone and then fall on it for a TD (called a try). But if it goes out of bounds or the other team falls on it it's a turnover.
To keep play moving in rugby you have to keep your kicks outside the end zone, or id they get into the end zone not go out the back or side, otherwise teams would just try to kick to the end zone all the time because there's no downside to doing it.
In rugby you have to actually touch the ball down to the ground to score in the end zone (that's where touchdown comes from) but it's ironically called a 'try' in rugby and a touchdown in the sport that doesn't require you to touch it down. And if the defending team gets a hand underneath the ball your try doesn't count and ball goes back to the other team.
So yes, the idea is that when you get to the goal line you have to cross it with possession and it is very important in the game to keep integrity and allow the other team to actually play defense. You can't just give teams a free pass to lose possession at that crucial point, all type of shenanigans would ensue.
If fumbles outside the end zone didn't end in a turnover, you could theoretically just do an option style pitch anywhere near the goal line and if the player out wide decided he wasn't gonna be able to catch it and score he could just bat the ball forward out of the end zone. Which normally any backwards pass is a live ball. You could just superman from the 5 any time you want, you could pretend to fumble forward any time you thought a run was getting stuffed.
I mean, if the offensive player is going to be given the ball back, where would the next possession start at, where they lost the ball? Why? You don't do that anywhere else on the field and you can't advance a fumble either. I really don't understand why anyone thinks the player in that situation should get the ball back. Anyone who thinks that rule should be changed is a complete dope IMO.
They need to stop changing rules so much anyway. If they change that one I'm done watching the game at all.
Now people are also saying they need to ban the 'tush push' the Eagles do on short yardage. Absolute fkin morons on twitter saying 'it's not football'. Football comes from rugby and that's what a rugby scrum looks like! Other teams are trying it and failing. The Eagles can do it because they have a hall of fame center and a QB who squats more than a lineman can.
The offensive line is the most underrated and underappreciated position and they want to take away their contribution it's so fkin dumb.
You know why there's so many whiny little b_tches wanting rules changed? Cuz they're all corny ass fantasy football nerds who transitioned to betting alongside Fanduel and Draftkings and they can't accept when they lose a bet because they really think they're clever football minds. No one was crying about rule changes til betting became legal, were they? Nope. And these clowns don't know the history of the game and haven't paid their dues losing bad beats for 20 years having to pay up or get paid in a brown envelope from some shady Tony Soprano type, they're upper middle class soft crybabies who got participation trophies as kids, who only started betting from their phones a few years ago and want the rules changed because they're the type of people who think they're 'winners' and any time things don't pan out the way they want they need to go to a laughing hot yoga class to soother their inner child.