When I first saw it, I'm like "Yep, that's getting flagged." However, when I saw the replay, I thought it was a legal lateral. I agree with your assessment especially since I could've sworn that Big Ben did something very similar to Bell in last season's playoff game against the Jags and it wasn't called.
it is a rule that is fundamentally broken on a scientific level - if this was a play that happened often in the NFL this rule would have been fixed years ago