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I think the wording is clear enough. So what if you use a remote scope? Most remote scopes only take the exposures for you - they don't process them (maybe dark subtract at best).
Yep, you're at some advantage of being able to use premium equipment to get good raw data, but you still have to do the rest yourself.
I see no problem with this at all. If you can afford to spend the money to get the data, why not? Let's say you want to get 4 hours of exposures. That's USD$400 (or so). That's a lot of money to spend to win a regional astrophoto comp - AND you still have to be better than everyone else. Your ego would have to be pretty big to spend this kind of money to win a competition don't you think?
Last year's malin awards overall winner used a DSLR - up against high end RC's and cooled CCD's worth $50K+.
As long as you're not sucking down hubble images and merging them in to your own exposures, who cares really?
Slightly off-topic though, my opinion on astro photo comps has always been making sections in the comp based on general equipment category, not the person doing it. Then, when the equipment disparity is taken out of it to some degree (as best it can), then you are focusing on the skills of the imager in both the artistic and processing skills they have.
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