High School Soccer Rules Thoughts

I just read through the rule changes to high school soccer for next year. As a referee and coach of high school soccer, I need to be a little bit careful about what I say about the rules, since it will be my job to comply with these rules once the season begins.
I am fascinated (and a bit annoyed, sometimes) by the different rules for high school.
Here are some examples of the differences between NFHS (high school) and FIFA (everywhere else) rules.
In NFHS, the clock counts down. It is stopped by the referee for goals, yellow & red cards, and penalty kicks. When the clock reaches 0:00, the half is over, and no time is added. In FIFA, the clock counts up and runs continuously. Time is added at the end of each half to allow for time lost due to goals, yellow & red cards, penalty kicks, and any other stoppage of play.
In NFHS, the home team must wear white jerseys and white socks and the away team must wear non-white jerseys and non-white socks. In FIFA, the home team can wear whatever color they wish, provided that it does not match the color of the away team. In the event of two teams in similar colors, the home team changes.
In NFHS, a throw-in that does not enter the field of play is illegal and the ball is given to the other team. In FIFA, a throw-in that does not enter the field of play is still a dead ball, and the ball is re-thrown.
In NFHS, a player receiving two yellow cards is shown a yellow-red card and is unable to play for the remainder of the game. He may be replaced. In FIFA, a player receiving two yellow cards is shown a red card an is unable to play for the remainder of the game. His team plays a man down for the rest of the game.
In NFHS, substitutions are open and unlimited. That is, players may be substituted in and out as often as the coach wishes. In FIFA, substitutions are closed and limited. That is, a player may not re-enter the game once leaving, and each team may make a maximum of 3 substitutions. (I should note, however, that FIFA allows the substitution rules to be modified for youth games.)
In NFHS, the referee is required to give a signal to indicate the type of foul called in addition to indicating the direction of the kick and whether the kick is direct or indirect. The signals, some of them a bit bizarre looking, are shown in this PDF document. In FIFA rules, the only required signals are the direction of the kick and whether the kick is direct or indirect.
In NFHS, at least 2 ball handlers placed out of the field are required in order to keep play moving. In FIFA, no such requirement exists.
In NFHS, if play is stopped for an injured player and one team is in possession of the ball, play is restarted with an indirect free kick for that team. In FIFA, if play is stopped for an injured player, play is restarted with a dropped ball.
Now, these differences might seem minor. Stopping the clock and adding time, for instance, have functionally the same effect. The effect of this difference, however, lies in who controls the game. In FIFA rules, the referee is in control. In high school rules, he is a slave to the clock. In my experience, I have seen this rule difference cause a team to be denied a goal because they took a shot less than a second after the time expired, creating the need for an overtime period when the game could have already ended. In other words, the quality of the game was detrimentally affected.
I would love to see the NFHS revise its rule book to bring the high school game more in line with the rest of the soccer world. Since that is unlikely to happen, however, I will just have to live with the differences, whatever I think of them.