These are my thoughts in your question.
There are a few different groups riding in the Rally.
1. Those who make it part of their semiannual vacation plan (seriously) and just ride the the rally for the heck of it. This doesn't mean that they don't try to do well but the Rally is a well planned vacation/adventure that they can take part in, to them it is the ultimate vacation.
2. The larger group are people in their first IBR and who's goal is to just finish , get their 3 digit IBA Number and do their best in a strange new world.
The third group is the hard core group of 15-20 riders who battle it out for the top spots. They have natural ability at the rally game are gifted in rallying and compete against themselves and the RallyMaster. In 2013 a few riders out routed Tom Austin and the experienced cadre who practice routed the rally. Riders on their bikes riding to bonuses figured out that Pike's Peak and the Pony Express Stations were both doable on the same leg.
The puzzles are still going to be the time distance equation, the big factors that can't be measured in advance is the state of the weather and road conditions. This is a variable that two riders an hour apart may have to face differently with one being advantaged and the other not so much
The internet makes the discovery of potential rally bonuses in a complex rally theme somewhat simpler, but in the end if a big bonus is an 800 mile slog in and out on a gravel road or involves two border crossings the problem solving on both sides of the table becomes more difficult. For the RallyMaster is the bonus achievable by some, all, or a specific group of the riders and for the riders are they going to try for a bonus because it makes sense or because it does't and if it doesn't is it doable and therefore will other take the bait and accumulate a significant amount of bonus points..
One of the Bonuses that would have worked in 2011 and would have been an interesting bonus and the equivalent to Prudhoe Bay required two long Ferry Crossing and the margin for error was so tight that if a rider missed the exit Ferry they would miss the Finisher's banquet by 2-3 days. If that bonus was going to be in a rally someone would have had to ride the ferry go to the bonus and then make the return ferry.
Everything would have to work , the location of the finish , the location of the prior checkpoint and the ferry schedule that wouldn't change in the next two years.
The great thing about the Rally is that both sides constantly step up their game , it is evolutionary and it remains in existence for the rider's benefit , challenge and enjoyment.
We are getting near the finish and this is about the time that the rookies will pull out their ear plugs and the constant friction will have by now caused enough roughness that bleeding will have begun inside their ears. The little bit of blood will have made their inner ear skin one with their ear plugs. Ear plug removal will tear the flesh away and ear plug insertion will be just a delightful. For the Rally vets, they will have been putting Neosporin or something similar in their ears since day 5 and they will not remember that experience.
