Wouter: The Hobie desicion was made to address the exact situations you mentioned. More non-Hobie than Hobie.
To say it backfired after one year of results is very premature at best. The people involved in the desicion fully expected to lose some regattas, fleets and maybe whole divisions in an effort to strengthen the Hobie class for the future. The fact is the class membership was up last year and memberships from renewals and first timers are coming in at a steady pace. I would say it's going better than expected.
Lets see where things are five years from now and then determine how well it worked or didn't.