Oh I know we don't have to do them, I do genuinely believe its good to do a BN before a CD because its far less pressure and a great introduction to the ring. Also, I do genuinely believe a stepping stone between the CDX and UD would be nice as they are really very different and lack any real building blocks from previous classes.
I don't however see the drive to spend money to go between the BN & CD with a prenovice? What do you practice in there, that you don't in the BN, to prepare for the CD? Maybe I need to reread the PDF again.
On that note, I'd rather see more wildcards at discount prices, but that doesn't financially benefit the AKC.
Yeah I figured you knew but with them listed in order like that earlier in the thread I just wanted to clarify for those who may not.
As for why competitors would bother spending money on these classes, I can think of several reasons even just among people I know:
1- Wanting to play with an older or physically limited dog. The new classes have short jump heights (half I think).
2- Proving skills in the working section of the test while avoiding group stays. This particularly for people who had a bad experience or witnessed a bad experience with a dog who had no business doing group exercises.
3- Extra ring time. Some will treat these as C matches for training or brushing up on skills in a trial environment.
4- Alphabet soupers. There are those who simply must collect all the letter regardless of value-added. Some just like the collection, others think the list of letters make their dog look more accomplished (whether he is or not). The later can also often be ID'd by listing everything under the sun (NA NAJ NAF OA OAJ CD BN CDX...) even though some supercede earlier titles or by collecting and advertising for instance rally novice titles from five organizations and advertising their dog as a rally superstar though they've never Q'd in even the second tier of difficulty.
5- Someone with a retired dog who just wants to play a round, or with a novice dog who just wants to see where they are, or a handler who gets nervous in the ring who wants practice without what they perceive as the higher pressure of the normal classes.
There are probably others but those come to mind.