I was looking at the yuletide RULES POST O'DOOM, and think the rules creep is a response to ppl being pissed off about X fandom being ruled in or out in previous years? It just looks SO like someone tried to sit down and outline every possible contingency so the there'd be less yelling about unfairness and rule-bending nepotism.

That said, I totally agree about the RULES POST being massively off putting just because of the effort to read and digest that whole monstrous thing.