Let me give you exactly the reason why they should keep these rules, even if they are broken. Sometimes well bent rules are better than no rules at all.
There are people out there who would spend thousands on a CL stunt ship. $2,000 would be easy for them and I have seen such ships advertised from Eastern Europe. $5,000 is well within the realm of possibility.
Getting rid of these rules will encourage this. It is already expensive to field a ship for high level flying. If you at least have to put on the pretense that you built it, then I think it keeps things a bit more under control. Without that, there would probably be some really amazing developments in the planes, but the cost would get crazy. Heck, some people complain that combat has already gone this way. I can forsee some flyers contracting composites companies to build airframes for them at high cost, then another $500-1000 would go to the painter. There are some people out there who would probably pay someone to design it for them in the first place.
All this might actually make the event more popular and attract a certain kind of person. There are a few people who have almost unlimited money to spend. It's their money to spend, but take a look at other hobbies and sports before you are too quick to jump on the bandwagon on this. Some sports and hobbies that were open to the average person with a talent in the 1950's now require sponsors with deep pockets to pay for the equipment needed to be competitive. Many full-size aviation events have very much gone this way. I don't expect CL to ever get that crazy but still, think about it.
This kind of thing is also the reason that I am not always too keen on people trying to promote nice little hobbies like this to the "general public." It doesn't usually work, but when it does, the folks who were already here - us - usually don't like what it becomes.
FLOYD C
FLOYD CUMMINS