Whenever there's a competition of some kind, be it in art, sport, culture, or on Everything, some competitors will try to change the limitations. On one hand, they want to be at the summit of that specific competition, but on the other hand, they make it a new competition by bending the rules in their favour.
True mastery comes from exploring what you can do within the limitations. If you do something extraordinary with respect to the rules, that was previously thought to be impossible within those rules, then you can call yourself an expert in that discipline.
If you "relax" the rules just a little, someone else will bend them a bit more, until the original competition has become unrecognizable. To quote Storm:
"And then, for the next olympics, we'll get rid of all the events and just give each athlete 10 minutes to do whatever he likes to impress a panel of judges."
-
Storm, a demoscener, on the decision to combine the PC and Amiga compos at a demoparty