Jake, as Means said... It's always been that way. Where is the additional carnage coming from? There is a pretty clear rule about contact.

Knowing that the protest may not go your way would make you think hard about forcing a bad situation ( I suspect this the reason for 18.2.e). I'm a big fan of the starboard layline approach but I can also see where the door could become hopelessly closed and a bailout would be a better approach.

If it's just a starboard and a single port tacker coming into the bottom mark, it's going to be a tough sell for the port tacker to claim they could not give room. Now if it's 5 port tack boats that your expecting to give you room... it probably starts to get a little fuzzy. Yep, could be a long night in the room.