I don't know why I am so intent on playing the devils advocate.
I think that the regional qualifying system probably created a better quality field. 1 DNF and only a handful of lapped athletes is probably much better than the average chaos that happens year in and year out in the 10k at nationals. Also after Chelanga the race seemed very close and exciting for 2nd through 9th.
But I still stand by my claim that some of the 5 scorers weren't ranked in the top 24 would have run a time that qualified them for nationals if they needed to.
Since 10k's take a toll on a person's body it would be best to only do them when you have to. Since a lot of these athletes are forced to do them at their conference meet, having a regional forces them to do a minimum of 3 10k's. Thus if you wanted to do an extra 10k to get a time that means 4 10k's. Lets see what the scorers did:
Sam Chelenga: Cardinal, Regionals, Nationals (plus IC4A 5k and Regional 5k)
John Kosgei: Big 12, Regionals, Nationals (plus Mt. Sac 5k, Big 12 5k and 2 1500s)
Jake Riley: Mt. Sac, Pac 10, Regionals, Nationals (plus Cardinal 5k, Pac 10 5k, Regional 5k and dual meet 3k. Dude raced a lot)
Mohammed Ahmed: Big 10, Regionals, Nationals (plus Big 10 5k)
Kiel Uhl: Mt Sac, Big 12, Regionals, Nationals (plus Cardinal 5k, Big 12 5k)
Joe Bosshard: Big 12, Regionals, Nationals (plus Mt. Sac 5k, Big 12 5k, Regional 5k and 2 1500s)
Ben Cheruiyot: SEC, Regionals, Nationals (plus Auburn War Eagle 5k, SEC 5k, Regional 5k and 3k and 4 x mile)
Alfred Kipchumba: Mt Sac, Regionals, Nationals (plus Stanford 5k, Cardinal 5k, 2 1500s)
So out of 8 scorers, 2 did 4 10ks and 6 did the minimum 3 10ks.
I don't think it is necessarally an issue of just peaking too early. Ben Cheruiyot and John Kosgei ran low 13:40's in april which would certainly equate to good 10k's if they chose to run 25 laps instead of 12.5. Ahmed barely raced but since he didn't seem to ever run any faster than he had to I doubt that he couldn't have run atleast 28:40's if he had jumped in the B heat at Cardinal or something.
All of the other guys who did 4 10k's are probably feeling a bit over raced.
So if the regional system sticks around you will probably see a lot less people doing fast early 10ks. It certainly seems as though it would make qualifying for USA champs or Olympic Trials a bit tougher for the college kids but other than that it is probably fine.