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Christ,
Formula is right. For normal driving and/or hypermiling, all four wheels need to spin for a vehicle to move. Therefore the engine sees the load of all rotational inertia not just that rotational inertia that is mechanically connected to the driveline.
In drag racing it may be beneficial to increase the rotational inertia of the wheel/tire and absolutely minimize the weight of the non-drive tires. Higher drive tire mass/inertia reduces the tendency to generate wheelspin when massive torque is applied quickly and the non-drive tires are only there to support vehicle weight. If racers find benefit for lightening non-drive tires I fail to see why a "normal" driver could not achieve similar benefit.
Unless you argue that the engine will accelerate the drive wheels at a faster rate to a higher speed there is no benefit, obvious or not, for lightening the drive wheels over the non-drive wheels. If you do in fact argue this case then we're talking more about racing and less about normal driving. Even under full-race conditions few DOT approved tires can sustain drive slip greater than about 12-15% without breaking loose so the drive wheels cannot exceed non-drive wheel speed by much and not for long.
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