I think Luiz's point (of course he can speak for himself) is not that a formula is unsuitable for racing in general (that's plainly not true), but that in the context of junior sailing, greater certainly of equality between boats will be more likely to convince parents of kids inclined to race to invest, since they will have greater confidence that their kids will be able to compete on equal terms.

In this context, perception may be more important than reality to an even greater degree than in an adult formula class. In the latter case most of us are comfortable with the idea that any difference in performance between different designs is less significant than differences in sailing ability. In a junior sailing context, with parents who may not be hard-core sailors themselves, a perception that you have to have the latest design to compete may be off-puting to parents who just aren't able or willing to buy the latest design.

Luiz, am I interpreting more or less correctly?

Having said all that, I get the impression that the consensus here on the forum is moving towards the formula approach - partly because of insufficient consensus about some of the important design features and partly for the reasons that scarecrow outlined.