My take:
1. There are already Newsstand Slots in competitive sets now
2. If you don't want to buy a newsstand or variant and grade it, then don't. No one is forced to participate in the Registry.
3. Newsstands and Direct Editions are not the same. Ask the people with a Spawn 1 Newsstand, Ultimate Fallout 4 Newstand, Spider-Man 1 1990 Gold UPC Newsstand if it's the same as the Direct Edition. Look at the scoring on the last book I mentioned and tell me if you think the Registry regards them as equal.
4. LOCKING SETS SO NEW BOOKS CANT BE ADDED IS A COMPLETE NO-GO FOR ME. There are sets that exist now that are incomplete. Below are three sets where I have the top set but I know for a fact not all the books are listed:
A. Deathstroke (2014) - Missing several Variants and the last few issues of the series.
B. Robotech Defenders - Missing the Canadian Price Variants
C. War of the Realms (New Agents of Atlas) - Missing Issue #4 First Print.
I could go on but we already know that this is the case
5. We can't do a completion bonus on sets that dont have all the books listed. What if I got a completion bonus on a set that was actually incomplete and a new book is added. Would i lose the bonus?
6. And why on Earth have competetive sets that aren't eligible for awards? Because not enough 'other' people have collected them as well? Hmmmmm?
I think that Spawn is a perfect example of a set that should have Newsstand Slots created (especially on those first few issues).