I will say that "freestyle" flying can be more crowd pleasing than precision competition. It's similar to going to a full scale airshow and watching Kirby Chambliss or Mike Goulian perform vs. going to a full scale aerobatics competition and watch everybody compete flying the same sequences (the flying is further away and less exciting). But once you understand what is going on and get past the initial thrill, precision flying has more staying power for both the spectator and pilot as well.
I attended the Joe Nall fly-in this year for the first time (awesome event!) and watched a lot of flying over the course of a few days. The 30-40% aerobats seem to dominate the event, and to me, it took very little time to get tired of watching these awesome aircraft hanging from their engines. Every once in a while, someone would take one of these beautiful airplanes and actually fly a precision sequence. I would stop and watch every time.
It seems as though every picture in the magazines and every video clip on the internet is of one of these fantastic aircraft standing on it's tail in fron of the pilot. It was cool the first 1000 times. Now, it seems, if you come out with a new airplane, the first question that gets asked is, Will it hover?
Sorry for the rant, and I understand that freestyle is more than just 3D flip flopping, I just think it should be a different event than IMAC.