Whilst I see your point regarding players, as they obviously abuse the rule, you can't really blame them. For example if Ntini and Boucher were offered the light today, you couldn't exactly fault them for taking it. They had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose. All the 'eye widening' and other antics which are used by players all over the world to try and get the light offered to them is pretty weak, but I don't really blame them.
Its the administrators, and to an extent the umpires. There's no clear law. The current written law is so vague and frankly, crap. What they should do is firstly legislate a uniform light reading. Bring back the light metres, why did they suddenly dump those? And also the rule in regards to pace bowlers and spinners needs to be clear as well. Firstly, one must be able to seperately define spin from pace. For example if an umpire says "Well you can't bowl Brett Lee, and hell even Andrew Symonds with his seam ups is getting a bit shaky now, you have to bowl spin from both ends", then firstly this must be an official law whereby spinners get more leeway, rather than just being something that umpires use, because thats inconsistent. Secondly, the definition of spinners is important. I'm sure its harder to pick up a spinner like Kumble or Afridi in the dark compared to a Warne or Kaneria. Is it then fine to bowl all spinners, or only certain ones?
Such a crap rule. Its all over the place right now, and it was only a little while ago that it cost England a test match against SA (SA were 8 wickets down, Ntini had just been smacking fours and was suddenly offered the light) and here it almost cost Australia a test match. I reckon if Bucknor wasn't out there, and it was Doctrove and someone else SA may have been offered the light. Doctrove wanted to go off IMO, but Bucknor seemed like he thought it was fine to keep playing. Inconsistencies like that just can't occur.
Imagine if this happened in the 5th test of an Ashes test match with the game and series on the line. For example England, current holders of the Ashes is 9 down and 150 runs behind. A win is out of the question, and the series is square at 2-2. Obviously they want the draw to hold the Ashes, and with the light problem anything could happen, and with it being so vague the backlash (whether it was given to the batsman or not) would be huge from all corners.