I just read through all this and thought I'd pop in my two cents. There are really two basic issues here. One financial and one traditional. In a time of ever decreasing membership and dues collection, KCBS has to look at expanding their base in order to continue to be successful as a business. Only they can decide if it is their mission or not to allow different fuel sources in and then we, as members, have to decide with our dollars whether we will continue to support that vision.
Tradition - change is always hard. Traditions are what keep cultures alive and families together. Think of the Jews over all those years of persecution and their continued existence and then think about your own family traditions around the holidays. Those are powerful feelings and are not without significant value, emotionally, and ultimately financially as we choose where to spend our money.
So what to do? Here are a couple of my thoughts. First, BBQ is about cooking. Traditionalists will say it is over an open flame, low and slow, modernists may say it is about the product and not the means. So let KCBS open it to alternative forms of combustion. Maybe to begin with we have two divisions. Non-electric/gas powered, such as traditional wood, coals and lump, and then an everything else section - gas, electric, pellet poopers, etc. And we keep them separate for a bit. Maybe having a 75/25 split in awards or split based on numbers in the division. 25 of each gets a 50/50 split of prizes, there will be more teams so maybe more $$. And as the "tradition" of split comps continues, maybe some day we can just put out the whole field and let the best food win. Just my two cents.
Personally, I think anything other than the wood/coal/lump is an advantage. Whether it's through sleep or timing or whatever.
Anybody can make good food, only a few are Pitmasters!
Yak