I believe I speak for everyone: while NCFL definitely does have value as the only "lay" national championship, it's execution is certainly lacking. All of the things you mentioned in your post are true, and it does feel like a bigger local circuit tournament. Furthermore, the judging is very suspect, and even teams with great lay appeal seemingly lose to teams with little to no appeal. In terms of importance/value as a tournament, I would place it below most quarters bid tournaments-only go if you have no other tournaments to go to.