It's one of the best ways to keep the field level. Think about it this way:
You are a team with a bare knowledge of programming, and so you do an R/C controller (like for a plane or a car). Your first match is against a team that has a computer on their robot, built and programmed by the team in ubercode, and controlled via a VR controller.
In addition to the nightmare I just described, there's another one: No way to govern the start/stop. Imagine being a ref going out to check that team X is hanging and having team Y not stop playing the match. Not pretty...
I'd much prefer the IFI system's reliability, but I like the power of the cRIO. Vision tracking with IFI was tough. Now, half the teams out there have it. But the IFI system didn't lose comm every other match.
I think that keeping limits on certain things keeps the field more level, and actually forces creativity. Yep, forces it. I'd love to see some rules modified (like I'd love to see an arm game again, and that means bumper gaps), but the creativity is now more subtle.
If you're interested, I think FIRST has the rules for previous games on their website. Take a look at the ones from the 1990s, especially the allowed materials list. Yep, there was a list of allowed materials. Not on the list? Sorry, can't use it. There were a lot of very creative robots in those years. Oh, and we get just motors now. When we used drill motors in drivetrains, sometimes they'd come in the drill. Now that's a fun dilemma: When do we take the drill apart to use it in the drive, because it's so useful in building the darn robot?
