I don't have a ton of love for politicking, but security researchers and staff engineers, a lot of the time, are people who either have a career in a really interesting area in infosec and can bring a lot to the table as teachers/presenters, or people who want to get into that area and who'd benefit massively from a place like DEF CON considering how accessible its talks, demos, and villages are to people of all skill levels.

Socialising, learning hacking history, and getting to know the traditions is always a great side effect that the DC crowd's been good at passing on to new generations. Goons still give people shit for misbehaving, speakers still take shots, TOOOL still has some of the best workshops and tutorials on the conference floor and usually has some people who'll talk about breaking open Medecos or Fichets to anyone who'll listen.

I'd venture to say it's against the spirit of the con to try and gatekeep it.

Having said all that (and the irony not being lost on me) -- linecon's definitely getting worse, and I'm worried that DC's becoming a victim of its own success, with its accessible pricing and subject matter being counterbalanced by having to manage a 20-30k person crowd. I don't have a solution for this outside of decentralization, but I don't know if that's a good solution.