Yeah... but there is a practical upper limit to having both the community feel and the ability to effectively organize everyone that having no comps requires.

My theory is related to Dunbar's theory about social organization. I think there are break points where conventions have to change in organization style or else spin out of control. I do not have any proof, but it seems to me that somewhere between 70 and 200 conventions stop being an extended social network and start needing things like comps because people stop feeling as much loyalty to the group because they can't know even a significant percentage of the con. Plus there starts to be so much to do at the convention that people can start spending the whole weekend doing X.