Building more than one robot / expanding the "season"

[Mr. Van]

On another thread, Joe Johnson said:

"Autonomy is forcing every team I know that is serious about trying to maximize there chances of doing well in the robot competition to build 2 robots -- one to ship and one to program autonomous mode with while you wait to compete at the regionals and championships. This is a serious problem for FIRST in the long run (more serious than the topic of this thread, imho), but it is off topic for this already overheated thread."

I agree that this is a very important thing to consider.

As far as I can see, it changes things substantially. Instead of "we have 6 weeks to build, test, program, etc. and then it goes in a box..." it is becoming "we have 6 weeks to build, and an additional 3-5 weeks to program, test, practice, etc." During the additional time, we can modify the test robot, collect the same "raw" materials and then "fix" the "actual" robot at a competition. Heck, if you weld the entire thing, you can bring a part that has been completely fabricated after ship date and put it on your "actual" robot, after having tested it with your "practice" robot for weeks and weeks.

Why is FIRST allowing teams to keep the controller this year?

Am I way out of wack here?

-Mr. Van
Coach, 599