Forgive Tim, for he knoweth not of the caneth of wormseth he has openedeth.
Here you find 2 camps. 1 group who prioritise 'an easy job' over fairness or the laws (or using the 'match control' excuse)), and one group who recognise that doing the correct sometimes means you're going to cop a bit of flak.
Teams have a right to a quick free kick. Let me be extremely clear on that.
The only time they lose that right is when the referee HAS to intervene - card, injury, substitution, that sort of thing.
This does not change anywhere on the field. If I'm wrong, I'll buy a pint for anybody who can show me the page number in the laws that states so.
Around the PA kicks are typically ceremonial - but that's because 99% of the time, the attacking team is happy for it to be ceremonial. The problem there is that it sort of becomes conventional, so the defending team, despite knwing full well they can take a QFK, have a sulk if that happens. So a lot of referees, unfortunately, pander to that.
How do you approach knowing when to do which? Read the situation.
If you're physically intervening, walking defenders back, then you've made it ceremonial. If you're some distance away and you verbally manage some distance, then I'd argue that you haven't made it ceremonial....but again, get a feel for it. If you need to be giving step by step instructions, then just intervene. But a 'back away blue! 10 yards!' from some distance isn't a problem.
If you're next to the point of the foul anyway and the attackers are there, then by all means, ask which they want. If they want it quick, move into position.
If you're some distance away and you have to run up, then you can sort of judge what they want. If the attackers are just milling around the ball with no indication of wanting to take it quickly, then you can ask, but I think you could be justified in making an assumption there. I mean, by the time you've gotten there, the ball has been on its spot for some 3-5 seconds, so if they don't look like they're even considering a quick kick by then....but you could ask. If the ball has to be fetched from some distance, then I think it's ceremonial by assumption.
So when it's ceremonial, raise your whistle, point to it, tell them.
Aside from that, if they want to take it quick, it's their right. And like anywhere else on the field, if they kick it into an opponent who hasn't had the chance to retreat, that's tough luck. If the opponent runs up and it's kicked into him, that's a card. At a ceremonial kick, defenders will often come up and stand on the ball, again, just from that mutual expectation that it's usually ceremonial. Usually it's not worth making an issue out of this, unless it looks like the attackers wanted it quickly.
Sometimes you get the scenario where the keeper is out of goal, either because he's the one who's committed the foul or because he wants to have a whinge about it. If the attackers want to take it quickly then that's his problem! Although if he's having a whinge and you've started having a conversation with him about it or given him a warning as opposed to just a 'you tripped him, let's get on with it', then again, you've already intervened in play. If actions you have chosen to take are why a defender is out of position, then it becomes ceremonial.