As a rookie team this year we found the teams competing in more than one regional a great source of information and inspiration. Our team placed 38th at the LA regional and wished we had another weekend to run our bot. We took it apart when it came home and fixed the bugs, now it works 100% better.
The team will make the effort to raise $ for two regionals next year, both somewhat local, just to gain more experience and push their learning curves.
Fairness is the opportunity to learn from the FIRST experience, regardless of a 1st place or 38th place finish. The 2nd or 3rd regional promotes the advancement of knowledge through experimentation and repitition. Seems like a fundamental reason for FIRST to me.