Jase, the following reply you gave to Marcus on your Helix thread seems to support very well why such images really don't fit in well with the amatuer imaging contest ethos.
You said to Markus:
"Setup time, darks flats...Huh? Price is inclusive. You gain access to a calibration library which is refreshed automatically to ensure quality data. Talking quality, you're right, you don't throw any subs away...there's no need too on this gear. Should a problem arise, you'll find many rental scope parties will refund your points. You're paying for quality data on premium instruments - not egg shaped stars or uneven field illumination. This leaves you spend time where its important - the processing."
Not only are you using vastly superior and larger aperture telescopes and operational observatories but all of the imaging aquisition work is in fact done for you, including the provision of all the bells and whistles that make the difference between perfect data and just good data.
With the utmost respect Jase and purely in the context of imaging contest ethos only, I think the only contest that images like your 24" RC version of the Helix should qualify for is a specific "processing contest" and one that is for big proffessional (ie comercial) scopes only, I'm not sure why this sounds so wrong to you?
Mike