The foul-out rule in basketball makes no sense to me

Here's a rule I've never fully understood. Why is it that players can foul out of basketball games, but not in other sports? I understand ejections, when a player's behavior goes way over the line and gets to the point of causing a major disruption to the flow of the game and intentionally risks serious injury to another through an over-the-top act of violence. However, an offensive lineman won't get kicked out of a game for committing five false starts. Hockey players will only see a couple minutes in the penalty box for such an occurrence. Why in basketball, when a player commits 5-6 fouls (depending on the level of play we're talking about), does he or she have to sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Why not force a player to be benched for 2 minutes after reaching a certain number of fouls, and sit another minute for each additional foul, or something along those lines? Fans go to these games to watch the stars play. They don't go to watch bench-warmers on the court. What would give us a better idea of who the best team is - a team that wins in triple overtime with nothing but third-stringers playing third-stringers or a team that plays their best against their opponent's best, whether that be for four quarters, a single overtime, or six overtimes? The prosecution rests, your honor...