I'm not even close to a top player, I'm just a player who loves the game and wants to support it. In 2011, I went to every tournament within a 10 hour drive of me:
East Coast Throwdown
Civil War
Summer Jam
A few Console Combats
etc.
And the OP brings up some really good points. Nearly every tournament I went to, it was very chaotic, and never finished even close to on time. I once sat in a hotel hallway for 12 hours without playing a single game.
The only reason I comment on this is because I believe it is a barrier to growing the offline community--I stopped going to tournaments because of some of these reasons. I imagine anyone who isn't a top player or know a lot of people would also be detered from going--it's tough to sit by yourself, not able to play for hours on end, even though you showed up on time and did everything that was asked of you. It isn't being ungrateful or anything of the sort--if I drove a distance to get there, payed my event and entree fee, showed up on time, but was disappointed that I had to sit for hours without playing--that isn't being ungrateful, it's disappointment.
Getting to the point: there are reasons people do things, and that includes attending tournaments. For top players, I think we can say that they at least attend because they have a very good chance of placing well (and this includes a financial incentive in addition to the fun/happiness of placing well). This doesn't change because of the issues described in the OPs post.
For players that attend for fun or to support the community, including those that are not social butterflies, it will be tough for them to continue to attend events when not only are they getting bodied, but they are giving their entire day, and possibly their weekend, paying for hotel rooms, etc. to basically have a DMV experience of sitting for hours, not having much fun, and paying money to do so. Also, sometimes you cannot get in casuals before the tournament starts, and if you practice on a lag free set up, and your matches are on a laggy set up, you have to in your first match without practice adjust on-the-fly. Maybe your opponent is in a similar situation, hopefully so, but you'll never know and it will certainly stick in your mind.
Now you can say screw them, who cares if they attend, but that's my point--if tournaments only want hardcore FGC players then they don't need to do a thing, but if you want new blood, I think something will need done to make it easier for them to attend. In most of the tournaments I attended, I at least made it a few rounds in and even then it was still a lot of money and wasted time to attend--I cannot imagine how the person who went 0-2 in the last pool feels.
For those that put on tournaments, I assure you the community appreciates your dedication to the game they play. Though, I'll draw this anology:
Your girlfriend spent 10 hours making a feast for dinner (maybe Thanksgiving), but not everything tasted so great. Do I appreciate her thinking of me and making me dinner? Of course. But does her dedication change the fact that the food tastes awful? No. And I bet 9 out of 10 times, the girlfriend would want you to tell her you didn't like it, so that she adjust what didn't come out so well.
Luckily for me, it was just a tournament for a video game, so I just decided to stop attending, but hopefully my point isn't lost.
