There are some who say rubber banding doesn’t exist, but at least to me it’s obvious, even on unbeatable.
Rather than the obvious rubber band, what about a sneaky rubber band where the bots just make critical mistakes on a more or less random basis based on difficulty? The higher the difficulty, the more likely the bot makes a mistake. If the bots win the dice rolls and don’t happen to make mistakes, well, that’s real-world so try again.
That way, at least there is a realistic reason for the invisible hand.
Better yet, eliminate rubber banding altogether. Or at least be transparent about the rubber band and make a menu option for the little kids to turn it on if they want.
I assume Horizon 5 wouldn’t be supported enough now to create that kind of mechanic, but Horizon 6 maybe?