That's part of what they said the rules changes were for: to prevent overzealous rules lawyering ROs from bumping people for improper use of magnets, holsters 1" too far from the nebulous hip bone, etc.
I definitely think nit picky ROs beating on noobs for non-safety things leaves bad tastes in people's mouths and can kill the enthusiasm of the new people.
I think in practicality with gamer 9mm ammo, 35-45 ounces is a sweet spot for me in a Production / CO gun. With hotter ammo, heavier guns become more important.
I tried it with a 9oz "flashlight" added to get up to max weight and while it helped some things (recoil management), it hurt draws, transitions and reloads having the weight on the nose.
The gain I got in recoil management wasn't worth the trade off.
So I think it's much ado about nothing.
I don't EDC a WML, but I do have one on my nightstand gun. I think it's a good idea in a home defense weapon. In an intruder situation, I would rather have one and I think it's cheap insurance.
To get to A level, you really don't need anything fancy. Not even that much "hard work." We're talking about 20 minutes a day of intelligent dry fire.
Fancy guns not necessary at that level. A fancy gun only gets you about ~2-4% in my back to back testing. To get 75% (and definitely 60%) there's a ton of low hanging fruit out there BESIDES equipment.
New S2s before the pandemic were only ~$1100 online if you didn't care about the color.
I left my gun completely stock except for $30 of springs until I made "A" classification, then I went a little more gamey because I knew what I liked and where I felt like things could be improved.
For an S2, it's changing a hammer spring, recoil spring and firing pin spring. That's pretty much it and you're almost all the way there.
Anyone using equipment as an excuse under an "A" level just doesn't want to put in the work.
And that's okay. The sport depends on making D/C/B level competitors feel good and enjoy themselves.
But honestly, if someone told me I had to run a stock Glock with a flashlight at a match I wouldn't feel too badly compared to my gamer setup.