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Today most of the Calif. sections have their divisional finals, but in almost every case it just qualifies performers for next week "Masters" meets which is the qualifier for the CIF StateMeet the following week
Were you aware that today is the team divisional championships for many teams? That matters to about 100 times as many coaches and athletes, even athletes that didn't make it this far but are cheering on their team.
You are looking at it from the perspective of the comparatively very few athletes that have a very good chance of going all the way to the state finals. Besides, California is an enormous state, without the qualifying rounds, what is the solution for deciding that small number of runners that get to compete in the state finals? Just base it on times, so track season becomes athletes chasing times, and only running races that are set up as time trials? Head to head racing seems the fairest, but yes, that means a lot of rounds. It is a big state.