Koneko. please don't mix the DOUBT some record is with doping (till when it's not possible to have any proof) with the fact that there is a different kind of pacer.
In the first case, only the athlete under doping can take advantage, and in the same competition participants don't have the same opportunities.
In the second case, all the women athletes in the race can have the same advantage, depending on their value. If there is a rabbit running very fast, the women able to stay can have advantage, the weaker runners cant. This is the same situation we have in men competitions. When there is a pacer (track or roads, there is no difference) with the task to pace in a well identified time (for example, in a race of 5000m till 3000m in 7'45", or in a marathon till 30k in 1:29:00), every athlete knows there is this opportunity, and is up to him to decide if wants to follow this pace or not.
So, in the case of women road races, there are more than two different situations.
A) Only women race : it's possible to have a female pacer (of course, if you have an athlete of the value of Paula in 2003, there are in the World no more than 5 athletes able running IN COMPETITION what she needs for being paced for the 50% of the full distance)
b) Mixed race : you can have some men (may be not an official pacer, but a normal competitor) staying with the ladies till last meter (there are about 500 male athletes able to run under 2:16:00 every year, so this situations is normasl administration)
c) London 2003 : it was an exception. The race was not a mixed race, it was a Women race with about 10 male personal rabbits, not only for Paula. Personally, I had 3 men pacing different groups at different speeds in that competition. There was the pacer for 2:16 (used by Paula only), for 2:18, 2:19, 2:20 etc. I remember Susan Chepkemei chosing the group for 2:20, not able to stay with the pacer after 35 km, reached by Lyudmila Petrova (with rabbit) and overtaked by the Russian and her pacer, running alone the last 7 km and probably losing one position (and a lot of money) because Petrova could have an aid till the end, while Susan couldn't.
That year, really there was something out of any rule. For recognising the WR, the organisers decided to have (like on the track, sometimes) two different races :
London Marathon mixed for men and the mass (race 1) and London Marathon mixed for Women elite (all the elite female plus 9 pacermakers, that had the MUST to finish the race in order to be in the final result, for making official the mixed race) named race 2.
So, the organisers wanted to have both the advantages, a big visibility for the Women Race (starting, I suppose, something as 30' before men) and a top record possible in a mixed race only.
However, that's not the point. The point is that the majority of road races, for obvious reasons connected with the organisation (and the fact the number of women is 10-20 times smaller than the number of men), provide one start only, so all runners start together. We speak about competitions with a large number of participants (fropm 1000 till more than 40000), and of course the rule cant be the same we have on the track.
What is important, in my opinion, is the uniformity of rules inside the same kind of events. I'm not interested if on track it's not possible to have mixed competitions : this is a right rule for track. But, if for every road activity the official rule is that it's possible to run together for men and women, this is something that every athlete can know, and can give the same opportunities to every top female runner.
The fact that in WCh, Olymnpic Games and Area Championships there are marathon or half marathon for women only doesn't mean anything : it's not a must, for who is able to win Championships, to be WR holder.
Definitely, I'm against the idea to compare track events with road events, and I don't think is unfair to have women record in mixed races on the road.
Finally, IAAF doesn't show a line. For example, why can be legal to run a standard for Olympic Games or WCh in a mixed race, if the result is not recognized ? If a lady runs the limit on track in a mixed competition, this limit is not valid.
I think this decision was taken by officials not having a real knowledge of what they are talking about.