If handicaps are not the optimal way of eliminating inferio…

past performance; a trusted third party; evidence of competencies in same or adjacent domain.

Those take more time to verify.

The reason handicaps are optimal is that they can be verified more quickly and more reliably than other information about candidates.

I can only speak for myself but I prefer to read messages from people I know over people who demonstrate wasted energy or that handicap themselves in some manner.

There are more messages than you have time to read. That's the problem that handicaps solved. You start reading after you have eliminated information down to an amount you can handle.