If the major advantage of federation is the ability of small players to function on an event footing, yet a handful of large players control the vast majority of the market, it calls into question how real this advantage is.
I don't think that's that major advantage at all. The major advantage is that there's many players. If the cost of entry is non-zero, maybe that's not ideal, but so be it. Food carts aren't free, but I don't see anyone saying, "Welp, screw it then, we might as well just all eat at McDonalds because the whole system of restaurant federation is useless."
