the weight penalty outweighs the aero benefit over most normal (non-TT) stages.
Wrong. On a mountain stage, you might just about make an argument for lighter wheels if you weren't already at the UCI minimum; in windy conditions, you might want a shallower front for better handling; but in every other case the aero gain (assuming well designed wheels) is massively greater than the tiny loss from having the weight at the rim rather than carrying it as ballast elsewhere on the bike.
In general, there is no rule about rim depth for road racing except that any wheel used in a mass start has to have passed the UCI "crash test" procedure unless it is an old-school wheel as defined in Regulation 1.3.018
Wrong. On a mountain stage, you might just about make an argument for lighter wheels if you weren't already at the UCI minimum; in windy conditions, you might want a shallower front for better handling; but in every other case the aero gain (assuming well designed wheels) is massively greater than the tiny loss from having the weight at the rim rather than carrying it as ballast elsewhere on the bike.
In general, there is no rule about rim depth for road racing except that any wheel used in a mass start has to have passed the UCI "crash test" procedure unless it is an old-school wheel as defined in Regulation 1.3.018