Pull tests at a contest today means that you need stronger wingtips than are necessary for flying. You need a place to hold your hands. Particularly with today's ARFs and some older designs, you have to do some artificial wing tip building up just to get through the pull test. This has nothing to do with the actual safety of the airplane.
It seems to me that a pull test is unnecessary. We should be able to design and build airplanes without having to worry about where our fingers might be during the pull test.
Larry Fulwider