I am on the F18 mailing list and a proposal to reduce the minimum weight of the F18 was turned down.

IMO, there are several reasons.

The current fleet would be obsolete, and this would alienate the current owners.

The current manufacturers, and there are lots of them, are not the ones in support of this change.

The F16 and F18HT formulas are out there today, but their support from manufacturers is significantly less than F18. Many of the manufacturers who support F18HT and/or F16 are also developing or introducing F18 models. The market and the support of the manufacturers indicate that the F18 rules should not change too significantly. Most of the accepted rule changes are to clarify existing rules or to grandfather, although temporarily, some features that were already on existing boats but in violatation of the rules.

Lastly, the rules have created very equal sailing that seems to put the best sailor on the podium, not the best boat.

The intent of the rules is to answer the question of this thread, "What is the BEST F18?????" The one with the best team on it.