I've been a Judge at the Phoenix regional for the past 4 years (or is it 5, it's all such a blur). The RCA definantly makes the judges talk about the participating teams more because they have the chance to hear more about a team. Of course you're talking about the hometown regional of Team 842 too
Freddy does an amazing job with that group of kids...
Like mentioned, its really hard to assess a team from the brief interviews done in the pits, it has to do with the fact that many students don't know how to talk about their team or robot when a judge walks up and most of time, information has to be coerced.
The RCA gives you plenty of practice for that and will make you more confident about your team. FIRST isn't all about winning the robot competition (although you can't tell some teams that), its about learning skills that will help you to be a better person and hopefully give you some tools to help you achieve whatever you'd like to do in life. Its not limited to the six week build period, it can be a year round endeavour thats as big or small as your team wants it to be and that's the difference between this program and many of the others that are out there. It's also the main reason why me and my guys beat the heck out of ourselves developing the FRC FMS system to give FIRST the best thing we can with the many challendges that are associated with its development. We believe in what we're doing.
So DO THE RCA, you'll feel much better about yourself in doing so.