1) What you are saying is not true about our criticisms of the ranking system. We are for a system that promotes the stars having to compete. Our #1 complaint of the ranking system is that it devalues the Olympic Trials (and US championships) which is very consistent with my complaint here.
I'd probably say our #2 complaint is that the ranking system is meaningless to the top stars. They'll qualify for Worlds anyway. (link to ranking article at bottom). But if shoe bonusses started getting tied to the official rankings and they promote head to head that's a good thing.
2) We are totally for athlete rights. We paid $2,000 to ensure athletes who should have been on the Pan Am team were on the Pan Am team. We are consistently in advocating against unfair advantages: doping, blades, and shoes that are not available to all.
3)
Taylor skipped USAs 2 years ago and competed 5 days later in Europe. If he was injured, I would not have a problem with him not competing.
4) I have no idea what John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Wayne Collett, and Vince Matthews have to do with this.
5) The crowds are disappointing but I'd like to know the better cities. Anyone can bid for this. Hopefully, USATF didn't burn too many bridges with Mt. Sac but they probably did.
6) USATF needs to change its rule. Say athletes only get a bye if they show up and put in an honest effort at USAs. If they are injured they get a bye. If it is deemed they fake an injury to not compete then they don't get the bye.
Thank goodness Emma Coburn is running steeple today vs Courtney Frerichs. That is what fans need. If USAs is regarded as a joke by athletes why should fans by tickets?
7) Taylor is free not to compete. He's free to not answer questions about not competing. But if he thought it was totally normal I think he'd answer questions about it.
Here's an article where we first wrote about rankings:
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/03/did-the-iaaf-just-kill-off-some-of-the-significance-of-the-olympic-trials-iaaf-announces-new-qualifying-system-entry-standards-for-2020-olympics/