Whilst we're fairly serious about our football here on the Mid North Coast of NSW we don't have promotion and relegation like you do in the UK. (Until you get to NPL level.) Our A-League (the highest level in Australia) is a closed franchise league like the US's MLS. Despite a fairly robust ongoing discussion to set up a proper pro/rel football pyramid and the threats of a FIFA governance takeover we are at least a decade away, if not longer, from having that implemented.
Small regional towns near where I am would have one or 2 teams whilst 'major' towns (60 000 to 80 000 person) would have half a dozen or so. There's 23 clubs in the region I'm in.
Here's a wiki article about the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_NSW_Football
I referee in this region:
http://northcoastfootball.com.au/
Clubs in the region:
http://northcoastfootball.com.au/north-coast-football-clubs/
With regards to no time added on for the matches on the weekends here it's quite possible to ref in the morning 20 - 40kms from town and then drive 60 - 80 or so kms in the afternoon to do other fixtures.
Like everywhere else there's a ref shortage here and the games have a short turnaround times between the ends of the game and the beginnings of new ones. Often referees are shuttling between fields in town or in the region so additional time added on is something they (the association) have decided won't happen because it'd be a giant mess if some games are delayed and others aren't. And to be honest because everybody knows about it it is rarely a big deal.
Time wasting can (and is) dealt with with a 'public word' or with a sanction so it's not like the players can do whatever they want but the OP was a little bit of a different situation where the player was disadvantaging his own team by kicking the blazes out of the ball hence the original query.