It was fun to read the intent of the schedule design first. I personally think the schedules I've flown (Sportsman and Intermediate) and also looked at (Advanced) seem to really meet the intent.
A bit of a related story: I just flew in an IMAC contest this weekend. I was going to fly Basic (entry level) and practiced about 2-3 flights worth the weekend prior. No other Basic pilots flew so I jumped to Sportsman.
My first thought is that the IMAC sequences are a lot more difficult. Basic includes a 2-turn spin. Sportsman includes a snap, point rolls, rolling entries and exits, and a spin. Having no practice at the Sportsman sequence I got lots and lots of zeros; I had my hands full (was like flying an unknown).
After a day to reflect, I realized that the F3A schedules did exactly what they are trying to do. In Sportsman I learned to use a little rudder, I practiced staying in the box and making center manouvres on center. In Intermediate, I find I am making wind corrections in every manouvre, in both straight lines and loops. The Advanced schedule has a lot of the same components as IMAC Sportsman - point rolls, rolling entries and exits, a snap, a spin. Note that the F3A Advanced has more manouvres that IMAC Sportsman.
It seems like IMAC has a more aggressive approach, but F3A builds a really strong foundation and gives a little more time to learn and reinforce precision aerobatics skills.
My final thought: I think that the progression (F3A Pattern) from Sportsman to Advanced is perfect. It does exactly what it is supposed to do (I know I've commented on this before in appreciation) and is really teaching me some amazing skills. But what happens after Advanced? It seems that there is only one more level to advance for most people, then FAI (I see FAI as the goal, not Masters, but that's me). I am wondering what we could do to implement a class between Advanced and Masters (the name Masters implies that it should be at the top, so maybe adjust skill accordingly). I know a lot of the D1 contests I was at last year were heavily stacked with Masters pilots. Not as much in D4, but I have a feeling people hesitate to jump from Advanced to Masters because it's the 'last stop', or because it's pretty full of pilots with decades of experience.
Does another class make sense to a lot of people? I'm sure it's been discussed, maybe I should search
I think one idea could be to try bridge the gap between Masters and FAI. Why aren't more people flying FAI?