USPSA and IPSC have been diverging for a very long time and, this is just my $0.02, but I can't really help but wonder if it is really a cultural thing...
Follow me here for a sec and I promise I won't be my usual laconic self.
I really wonder if a large part of the sport is rooted in the fact that we can generally build and shoot anything we fancy here in the states. People here are free do do whatever they want to a Glock - this really isn't the case outside the US.
Generally, outside the US, someone has to really be shacked up with a manufacturer and have them willing to produce guns suitable for the sport: Beretta and the 92X based on Italian competitor input, Tanfo and their previous long association with Eric and CZ with a whole team and agile method to produce firearms that would play well in the European market.
The US made the first really compelling Carry Optics guns, has been dabbling with competitive (... and useable) PCCs for a while and USPSA has supported those venues as they've become more popular in the
mainstream, as opposed to the sporting crowd.
(The cross-pollination of ideas, it seems, may cut both ways. We all credit the creation/testing of red dots and high-cap 2011's that seem to come due to the sport, but I wonder if the "average joe" interest in CO and PCC has driven that back into the sport.)
My point is, the sports serve radically different markets of people: one where "anything goes" and the other where it is really up to the "elite" and manufacturers to dictate what is acceptable/not.
At the end of the day, USPSA and IPSC are only slightly similar and maybe it is for the better that we've allowed them to diverge so much...
Is it time for a US IPSC group that follows the IPSC rules to the "T"?
Is it that horribly difficult to use a stock gun and 15 rd mags to play production in IPSC for a USPSA shooter?
Is it really, honestly, that bad that someone can strap a flashlight to gun?
Maybe... No... IDFK... But, I don't mind the innovation we've seen here in the US. @
Paul Sharp and I were remarking that 15 years ago there weren't any AIWB guys/gear/doctrine.