As a fellow gamer, I couldn't agree more. I think that we tend to forget that much, not all, but much of contemporary pistolcraft has its roots in guys trying to get the edge to win competitions. Thumbs forward grip, ISO, red dots, I think that much of our ideas of sight tracking comes from Enos' work; certainly not everything in competition is good or relevant to self defense, but the leading edge of the tactical world has kept tabs on the competition world for some time now, and you can see that as equipment and technique evolve.
So, yeah, USPSA Open is the place for new, pushing the edge ideas - always has been