The 1s rules have only been in place for a couple of years now...that is not stagnation...that is stability. Part of what is killing this hobby is the lack of stability. Things have been changing so fast these last few years it seems there is a new gotta have motor or ESC every week. It is just too expensive for most people to keep up with. Nothing is preventing R&D from occuring. Look at most of the advancements we are using today...most were developed outside of the existing rules and became popular enough that the rules had to be changed to adopt them. Brushless, LiPo, even the whole short course truck class were all in use and gaining popularity long before any sanctioning body added them to the rules.