As far as I can gather the reason why Discards were introduced in to the scoring mechanism of sailing was due to the prolific increase in the sports popularity in the 60's and early 70's. New designs which adopted sheet ply materials made it alot easier for home builders to build their own boats in their garages and in some cases front rooms. However, in certain Classes almost 1000 new boats were being produced each year during this period and the craftmanship and attention to detail did cause above average breakages. So as not to deter homebuilders and the subsequent growth of the sport Discards were introduced. Nowadays there are far less homebuilds and the materials used have developed some what but we have still been left with the Discard legacy. The ISAF could be seen to have noticed that too many discards in a series of races isn't the best way to justify a competitors or teams efforts. I think the times are a changing in this respect and the format for next years Olympics are testimony to this. F16's are a new breed of Cat which should be marketing itself as a modern class adopting modern ideas (i.e Medal Race, windward leeward courses with gates and a high number of races per event)
So lets try and put the past behind us and look to the future and keep F16's at the cutting edge of modern multihull racing which in my view in this instance is the minimum use of Discards.