ARF's have a definite place within our hobby, but a scale model contest is not (in my opinion) one of them. The scale contests should still be for the modellers who have paid their dues, and have expended the time to make a model airplane with their own hands.
The sad reality is that the numbers of these dedicated souls is dwindling to the point where in many areas there is not enough of them to even hold a contest. Scalemasters allows ARF's to compete in Funscale but not in EXPERT or TEAM. It is a great entry point for bringing new blood into the scale arena... sure, you can compete with your Hanger 9 ARF, but everyone aspires to that Scratch built FW-190 that went on to win......maybe one or two newbies will be inspired enough to start building their own in a year or two....... But, if they are never exposed, or have the opportunity to fly in a scale competion, they will never, ever get the motivation to scratch build a scale model on their own.