Agree. And on a scale that matters, the Regressives claim it doesn’t matter if a Marine can pass the Infantry Officer Course capstone exercise, a soldier can throw a grenade, a Ranger can meet the pre-course physical challenge standards or complete the confidence course, or that sailors can do pullups. It’s a high price to pay for being stylish and means degraded military readiness, battlefield defeat, and more combat casualties.
The military is one thing, auto racing is another.
In sports you only have one winner. That winner needs a supporting cast of losers and also-rans to draw in the spectators, to bring in the money. Imagine a NASCAR race with only eight racers, people who stand an actual chance of winning. The audience would be much smaller.
Heck, I can’t remember a twentieth of the names in the last Indy 500. But, they contributed to the experience; that’s for sure.