My Love/Hate Relationship with Amtgard

Pardon my rant

The more I am involved with Amtgard the more I hate it.

There are some good things about. Personally, I feel their battle rules are vastly superior to any other system out there. Why do I say that? Here are some reasons:

• No shield bashing or grappling - I feel that this is safer and also focuses on weapons skill rather than just overpowering someone
• Head shots are always illegal -  again, I think this is safer
• Tiered armor system - heavier armor gets more armor points
• No "laser" damage - an arrow that hits a weapon destroys the weapon rather than assuming it would hit the next target in line. This is far simpler to adjudicate.
• Shields last longer - they take 3 blows rather than 2

Other than that, however, the Amtgard structure just fills me with revulsion. Let me count the ways:

• Class System - I am increasingly of the opinion that the class system is broken. Spell casters are far too powerful. I'd like to dampen down the magic, which would encourage more swordplay.
• Crown Qualifications - candidates for officer positions are required to enter an Arts & Science tournament. Essentially, they need to prove their fitness to organize and lead by making stuff. Stupid.
• Centralization - I've griped about this before. Amtgard is built on a centralized model. Local park autonomy is severely limited. Local parks are essentially blackmailed into joining the local kingdom; if they don't they are denied access to higher level awards.
• Politics - I think this is a byproduct of centralization, but there seems to be a lot of political BS. And this is primarily at the kingdom level rather than within our local park.
• Awards Standardization - Sounds good in theory, but this severely limits the ability of local parks (especially isolated ones) to reward their players as they see fit. To me, this is like Wizards of the Coast telling a DM how to run his/her campaign.
• Knighthoods - I've ranted about this before; the system of knighthood is skewed. Historically, a knight should be lower than a lord, but Amtgard has this backwards. Sadly, this does recreate history in one way - it creates an arrogant, entitled aristocracy. By the way, I much prefer the system used by the Adrian Empire.

Anyway, feeling very frustrated by Amtgard recently. I'd like to drop Amtgard altogether, but then I would not have anywhere to play that's near me.