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HUH??? Sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me. As anyone that has ever bought a home computer (or otherwise experienced Moore's Law) can see, the evolutionary rate is HUGE in electronics. What you can get, or do for a fixed amount of money expands virtually weekly, and doubles in a year or so. We've OFTEN had to stop mid design cycle and redesign, because a part (or all) of the original design was suddenly superseded by the appearance of a new electronic device or component that changed the entire cost vs profit equation. THAT's the real world for you.
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I think you somewhate reinforced my point. Unlike FIRST which lasts 6weeks most real world projects last years. Imagagine if after 2 years of developement a sub-team wanted to upgrade there system. This upgrade may require changes throughout the project. This one change could undo most of the previous work. So in some projects a barrier is set to stop 'upgrades' to prevent having to redesign things over and over.
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Reading this post has given me an idea. How about a handicap/bonus for teams based on there robots cost. The max budget still being 3500$. The first 1000$ is free. The final score for each round is multiplied by 1.5. For every dollar used the multiplier is reduced by 0.0002. So if you used your entire budget you'd get a multiplier of 1. but if used none of it you'd get one of 1.5. It would make scoring more difficult but it would encourage teams to spend less(often if not always encourage in industry). Also this would definately help out teams with lower budgets. Many other design competitions often have some budget aspect to them so its not a new idea.
My 2 cents.