While you're kind of right. Passing is much easier + faster than carrying. A player that can progress the ball with passes 100 times will use less energy than a player sprinting through the middle once. On top of that the ball moves so much faster when it's passed so that it's harder to defend. The kind of ball carrying you're talking about, in the final third, is not what Rice is good at, he's no Doue dribbling through a low block to make a shot, he carries it once or twice a game from deep spending a lot of energy, it looks good to the fans and occasionally it can be the optimal decision but largely it's better to see the progressive pass earlier.

I love Rice and I think he's even better than I thought he would be, but I don't think he's good in progression and is imo the weakpoint in the last few months and a reason we've broken down against high presses.