The situation about Rally1/WRC being only for manus, expensive and not able to start in local rallies has been basically the same since like 2006. (and they are not 100% correct).

They were also valid in 2012-2016 with the "cheap" WRCs.

So while a discussion about Rally1 vs "Rally2(+)" is interesting, the main point in this resurected thead was hybrid vs no hybrid in otherwise similar car.

On a sidenote, while Rally2 has certainly been extremely sucessfull as a class it is now down to only 2 brands developing their cars. How long will the other cars stay competetive and whether the class survives in current form more than a few more years is a big guestion.