Tony,
I think that most of us that are not in the top 5 positions may not be willing to invest 5 days vacation to visit muncie in July. For me, I could come home and visit friends and my wife's family but not for 7 days (I am from Indianapolis). I look at the contests in other areas and while the SE and SW have the largest attendance, many of the contest in the other regions may have 20 pilots total who participate. If I was in a region like that where I could fly more than wait, then the choice would be to go to two or three local contest or go to the nationals. For me, the local contest would be my choice.