Encourage teams to attend close regionals: YES. However, that does not mean that teams should be deterred from attending far regionals. This is just a policy to that if your a team like one of the 4 FIRST teams in Manchester NH (40, 131, 238, 501) would not have to ship because it is just across town. (I do know that the teams who will bag will be more that just across town but just used these teams as an example.)
My say, if you want to attend a far regional, sign up
like to GSR
. In those cases FIRST will let you ship. As to when we are told who gets to bag besides MI, possibly in the next couple of weeks and if not KICK-off.