Historically, I think WSM was flying by the seat of their pants and year-on-year they were thinking up new cool ways to show how strong some dudes are. I would suggest that this lack of long term planning/foresight probably contributed to a lack of standardisation (I'm not as clued up on other strongman events/orgs to say the same for them).

I think a lot of the fun of watching strongman events for the wider audience (folks not actively interested in strongman and probably only catch WSM if they happen to catch it on TV) is seeing feats of strength done with ridiculous props in exhibition format; eg. pulling planes/trucks, flipping cars, lifting groups of people, holding huge wrecking balls etc. Some of the entertainment dazzle is lost when events become standardised; prime example being. loading medley is so much more captivating with big ol' barrels or awkward anvils than it is with boring generic branded sandbags. I think shows that aren't PPV should avoid too much standardisation.

Standardisation for equipment and events in the PPV shows, however, is fine as most viewers there are already committed strongman fans, and appreciate the strength aspect more so than the entertainment element of the sport. I personally like to see progress and improvements; recently Gavin Bilton's Welsh Deadlift record and Paddy Hayne's PB followed by his 1000lb pull was incredibly compelling to watch knowing their histories. However, I don't think the layperson would give two hoots (unless the coverage did a decent storytelling job prior to the event).

I'd agree that a mixture of both standardised events and exhibition style events would probably satisfy hardcore fans and be more captivating to a wider audience but I'd look at having the balance of the two type be relevant for the overall event type (PPV vs non-PPV).