Two reasonable people, one unwinnable argument
Someone buys a ticket months ahead, travels, pays for parking and a meal, and discovers the player they came to watch is resting. That person has a complaint, and it is not a small one. It is the only time that season they will see that team, and no amount of talk about April makes the evening better.
The coach has a complaint too. They are judged almost entirely on what happens in spring, they know what a heavy calendar does to bodies, and they are being asked to spend a player's availability on a night that will barely move the standings. Told to choose between one crowd's evening and the season they are employed to win, they will choose the season every time, and I struggle to call that wrong.
Why the obvious fixes disappoint
Minimum-appearance rules are the popular answer, and they do put players on the floor. What they cannot do is make a tired player worth watching, and they quietly encourage a vaguer kind of caution — shorter minutes, softer roles, a knock that becomes an absence rather than a rest. The cost has not been removed. It has been relabelled.
The reform that would actually work is fewer games, or more days between them, and that is expensive for everyone who earns money from the calendar. Which is why the conversation returns every season, gets loud, and changes nothing structural. I would rather the league said plainly that it has chosen volume over occasion than pretend a rule about appearances has solved anything.
What I would actually ask for
Honesty at the point of sale would help more than any rule. Tell people, well before the night, what the plan is. Fans forgive a lot when they are not surprised, and the current arrangement maximises surprise by treating rest as a medical secret until an hour before tip-off.
Beyond that, I would stop asking players to apologise for responding correctly to incentives the league designed. If we want the regular season treated as though every night matters, the calendar has to be built as though every night matters. Until it is, this argument will be back next season, word for word.