Travis, while I couldn't agree with your opinion more, I think that the stickler inspectors are pretty representative of the "real world" of engineering where constraints must be followed to the defined tolerance. Since FIRST doesn't allow in the rules for the bumpers to be spaced apart a little, aren't we cheating our kids out of part of this competition which is meant to be a microcosm of the real world?
I've reffed lego league before and while it sucks to have to be the one to tell a kid that their creation isn't legal (even if the rule is poorly stated), it's part of the program. There's some pretty brilliant minds at work in the GDC and while they do slip up every now and then, they usually have a pretty good reason for some of the more annoying rules.
thanks, Vivek