Completely disagree(Not on Lee Mason being a joke, everything that happened after that point was a disaster).
The player hit the ball before you could hear the whistle and that was clear. Regardless, the player hit the ball before ANY defender heard and could react to the whistle. The literal point of a whistle is an alert to all players that play is now able to resume. Having it technically be 0.00001 seconds after he blew the whistle is a palpably unfair act and you would be livid if it ever happened to Everton. The player was already in his run up and "taking the free kick" before the whistle was blown and was going to hit it regardless of the coincidence. He did not and was not waiting for the whistle.
The very point of rules and laws is not so that we can all just read a rulebook together and talk about rules and laws because thats soooo much fun. The point is to create a fair and safe game and a level playing field. Anything that falls foul of that should be treated as such and cheered when it is.