As neat as the bridleless competition is, we need to acknowledge that there's such a thing as selection bias. Horses are not born blank states. Some horses are naturally more woah than go. Horses with that type of disposition and a more upright carriage are favored for that type of competition. We saw a lot of Iberian types, compact and naturally upright in how they carry themselves. I personally have one of each. Dallas is an equitation horse, he's steady as hell. He's the one in the gif of me riding bridless. I could jump a course on him with no bridle because he slows the second you pick the reins up. You don't have to touch the bit most of the time with him. That's why he's a equitation horse, not a show jumper. He's not as fast and agile. Venus is my show jumper. They tried to make her a hunter but she's too much go and not enough woah. That's how she's always carried herself even before she was broke to ride. She's long, scopey, and gallopy. She'd be a lot harder to course bridless since she'd loose stearing and stride regulation as she's a type that likes to get bigger and bigger in the gallop. She doesn't stop or slow with ease. It's a bigger effort for her to steady than go forward.
I work at a hunter/jumper show farm that breeds and raises its own show horses. We can tell from a young age which are going to be jumpers, hunters, or equitation horses because that have a specific combination of traits that make them more suitable to one vs the others.
Naturally if you have a hot "drag you to the jump" type of horse you won't be attending the bridless competition since it will be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You wouldn't even compete in the hunters with that type of horse because again, square peg in a round hole.
This isnt to say that aiming for better equipment regulations isn't a necessary thing for welfare progress. Only point I'm making is that the expectation that every horse can adhere to the standard of a bridless competition is unrealistic. Plus if it becomes a standard type of competition what makes you think it can't go down the same line of corruption as anything else. Ive seen horses being ridden bridless showing conflict behavior thanks to how they've been trained. Even Clinton Anderson can ride and train horses for bridless riding. Does that make him a gold standard? I think not since he starts 2 year olds in a double twisted wire bit.
