davidl - I think you're right on the money - ROAR has gone against its mission statement in seemingly promoting the professionals over the privateers and letting the local track determine the classes to be run. When the governing bodies don't support those under it, harsh words are appropriate.
Down here in SoCal, we aren't all that fickle. If we had been allowed to run (and we DID ask. . .many times) we would have run with or without compound. I ran a number of heats at Norrca without and I did just fine. When we did run compound, we ran Sunblock.
But, to me, it's all about getting our class cancelled - in the case of mine, it was even before we were able to sign up! We were told that our class wasn't standard anymore, but that they would be running a non-standard class in its place.
I, personally, think that the Roar Pres has been far far more fickle than the drivers - we're just a reflection or reaction. . .