Hard Deck

Good comments Bill.

Some of this reminds me of motorcycle and auto racing courses/training (of which I have been to several in each type vehicle).

What you do on a nice weekend afternoon for fun (AKA, fun flight in a sailplane from your home field) tends to become different in a "competition" (whether an actual competition or just a training group) where the "Red Mist" comes into play.
You tend to go tunnel vision and the old "bottom of the gut" safety alarms tend to be muted.
In soaring, this may mean you fly lower, circle lower, wait longer to call it quits to land, whatever.
Rules will not fix this.
Yes, a penalty "may" remove the red mist a little sooner, hopefully reducing broken ships. If you don't break the glider, you likely don't hurt the pilot.

As before, I am not for or against new rules, curious to see the thoughts in this thread and comments on both sides.