I was around during the early days of IDPA, when it was first getting started and the founders would go to all the new meets to train RO's and other officials as well as try to explain scoring and the rules.
I was fortunate to have met Ken Hackathorne at the 1998 Smith and Wesson Winternationals and Walt Rauch shortly after that. Their driving philosophy was that they didn't want IDPA to turn into an IPSC style arms race, with ridiculously sized guns, holsters that were little more than magnets and rules that gave advantage to "gamers" who dumped rounds downrange while standing in the middle of a doorway to get them to slidelock.
They freely acknowledged that some of the rules would seem dumb taken out of context. But that if taken as a whole they were very logical.
And I agree with them. That little vickers part may only be $40. But next its a tungsten guide rod and then its steel replacement frame and on and on and on.
Ken Hackathorne, himself a 1911 guy, said the goal was that someone could get started than no more than the price of a service sized pistol, a holster, a mag holder and a vest.
I think any rule that furthers that goal is a good thing.
At the 1999 Winter Nationals, Charlie Wooley, a master level shooter who was an instructor at the S&W Acacademy won his class with a Value Line model 910 he had just been given that day.