I hate to fan flames, but I thought of another context to think about this in. It involves a couple of assumptions that probably aren't true, so please view it more as an exercise than a model of reality.
Assumptions:
- The contents of the veteran KoP is the result of an optimization problem. Solution goodness is only measured by average cost to teams.(Probably not true).
- For a given part, only X% of teams will make use of it in a given year.
- For a given part, it only costs Y% as much to include it in the KoP as it does for a team to purchase it separately.
Conclusions:
- Parts that are included in the KoP but not used by a team is the equivalent of that team subsidizing teams that do use them.
- Conversely, not including a part in the KoP can be considered as subsidizing the other fraction of the teams.
- The optimal solution (for the given assumption) is to include a part only when X>Y.
We, the community, can only make assumptions as to what X and Y are for the various parts. FRC HQ knows Y and has decent estimates of X.
What should the optimization strategy be? Lowest average? Lowest Median? Lowest competitive option? Lowest option that doesn't force recycling?
How do we account for the fact that money is actually a non-linear quantity? (Saving a low budget team 1000$ is different than saving a big budget team 1000$. Lowering the minimum cost may be the difference between competing or not competing to some very poor teams).
What other hidden costs are there? (Not having a part be in the KoP also costs time. Donated money can behave oddly.)
How do we work into account the terrible condition of the economy (and therefore our donors)?
Although my exercise is crude, I do hope it gives a useful strawman perspective.