A lot of good information on this topic especially I have been on a 10 year+ vacation (daddy duties). Glad to be back! when I started shooting competitive back in 2000, Open guns got me in the sport! In less than 3 months after the novelty wore off, I quick realized how expensive to shoot open! Then there's Limited, still great looking guns, shoot major and still have over 15 rounds in the mag. Not as expensive to shoot and 40 brass were in abundance. It also helped when I watched Travis Tomasie's reloading (magazine) video. It was a perfect storm for me to switch as I can practice my reloads as opposed to one to zero reload using Open.
I enjoyed limited for a while but the best part of USPSA was that you can compete in so many division? Loved shooting SS back when it was at PASA, 300+ competitors shooting one division! it was fun. When i didn't have time to reload, I went to walmart and bought 9mm and then shot Production.
I understand that by having so many divisions, the competition may be getting watered down. However, I believed we need to get more people into the sport. Whether from CO, LO , Limited, Production (back then, a lot of new shooters entered Production as it did not break the bank). With the cost of pretty much everything up through the roof, I may only afford to shoot .22 if that!
Heck, just to be back shooting is the coolest thing!