The Border Collie folks (for example) have resisted AKC reg, because pure conformation judging tends to distort the working characteristics of the breed in favor of good looks.
You see it in my breed - Labrador Retrievers - the show dogs have diverged so much from the field dogs that they look like two different kinds of dog. Also, many of the show dogs can't find a bird in a phone booth, and that's not good for a breed that's supposed to be a Bird Dog.
Hope in 20 years we don't see an AKC coonhound come up to a raccoon and give it that "Huh?" look that you sometimes see when a show Lab encounters a duck.
My dog is cross-registered in AKC and UKC.
I have to admit it looks like the AKC is improving its scope, however.
When I "left" the dog world by 1990, there was only Conformation, Obedience, Tracking, and some hunting competitions. The former 2 being the prominent competitions.
Now, I come back and find all this bewildering stuff....."agility", "flyball", other forms of obedience (all of which I sort of see as obedience), herding tests of various levels.
And just very, very recently, AKC FINALLY approved "working-dog sport", basically another phrase for SCHUTZHUND.
My only problem with AKC is they are not REQUIRING any of these non-conformation events to qualify as a conformation champion. Which is probably what they should do.
Hey, yer talking about my dog. LOL
I agree, I hope this doesn't lead to the death of yet another good breed.