[Koko Ed]

I find the actual on field competition part of FIRST to be it's least Gp part of it. It can be pretty ruthless at times, especially with the upper eschelon teams who everyone wishes to emulate. You don't always make it to the top by sugarcoating everything you do. Sometimes you have to give some "tough love" to get your point across.
If the competiton was 100% about GP then it wouldn't allow teams to turn down alliance invitations from anyone. Is there any worse feeling than having a team tell you basically that you are not good enough for them? But that is part of the landscape as well and thank God for the 3 team allaince structure that allows teams that would usually not be in a position to get on the podium to actually make it there.
That alliance strucure is FIRST's masterstroke. It makes it unique in the sports world and allows GP to show through on the field as much as it does. I don't think you'd see anywhere near as much if it was everyone for themselves.
I personally never gave the song a second thought really. I get more annoyed about a competiton that is so much about innovation recycling the same stupid songs in the playlist 20 times at an event.